Star Fox: Sunfall
by ZombieAxeHero
Summary: Jack and Veronica McCloud are totally unprepared when they are lost on an unknown planet, hunted like prey by a cult of supernatural beings led by a fiend from their father's past. Teaming up with two complete strangers (one of whom is more than she appears to be), they must use any means necessary to survive until help arrives, but even their help seems doomed from the start...
1. Introduction

**Introduction**

**AUDIO LOG #12**

**RECORDED MAY 22****nd****, 2078 AT 11:51 P.M.**

**LOCATION: UNKNOWN INTEREST POINT, UNKNOWN PLANET**

**RECORDER: JACK PARKER MCCLOUD**

There was no way anybody could see a thing like this coming. We were smack dab in the middle of peace times, and then this. Ronnie and I…we don't deserve this. We didn't do anything wrong, but here we are. They got her…and I'm running for my life from something that I never thought could exist.

…Goddammit…I…I wanna go home so bad, but…fuck.

Some say that seeing is believing, and if that's the case, I wish I could tear my eyes out right now because I'm seeing nightmare after nightmare. I have to keep running from a threat that's beginning to make me feel like I can't defeat it, and the worst part about it is that I know that my father could have stood up to a threat like this and defeated it no matter how much it hurt him…at least, he could…if not for the fact that both he and my mother are one of them now.

I'm being tested, and I'm failing.

Ronnie would probably tell me to stop being so melodramatic, but I can't help it. She has no idea what it's like for me to be in a situation like this. She's always been so much braver than me and I have no idea how she expects me to be anything like her. I'm sixteen years old, and…here I am practically crying for my mom.

What's the point, though? She's not coming to help me. If anything…she's come to make things even worse.

I know there's a way to save my mom and dad, but I can't think of it. I…I just can't. I'm fighting a lost cause, and for all I know, I could be dead by the time someone finds this.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, though. There's still some hope, but whatever hope I have, it's starting to run out. They're coming. I can't reason with them, I can barely hurt them, and all they want to do is kill me and feast on what's left.

I don't know if anyone will find this message whether it's floating in empty space or buried under twenty thousand leagues of water, but if anyone does manage to find it…

…please…for the love of God…somebody help me…

**-TRANSMISSION END-**

**UPDATE. AUDIO LOG RECEIVED MAY 23****rd****, 2078 AT 6:30 A.M.**

**LOCATION: CERES UNIVERSITY, PLANET AQUAS**

**RECEIVER: SCOTT O'DONNELL**

* * *

><p><em><strong>And this, friends, is the result of plethora of idea suggested by Razorblade88 concerning a story taking place after the events of Star Fox: Subspecies. And I know what you're thinking: "But you killed off Kursed in Subspecies. Who else is there?". Well, go back to Subspecies for a minute and go to the chapter in which Marcus and company stage a siege on the megaprison on Planet Kew and look at the very bottom. Every prisoner was found dead except for a certain twisted someone.<strong>_

_**Now, though I have this up, I'd like to make it clear that this is just a brief teaser. The actual story won't be getting started for a long time since I've got Nintendo X Capcom to finish as well as another Star Fox story I've already laid the groundwork for. So...yeah. For now, this is all I can give. Just take it and run with it for as long as you can, and while you're at it, give props to Razorblade88 for telling me to just get this part out there and let you guys know it exists.**_


	2. 1: Crash

CHAPTER ONE

**Crash**

There are millions of things a kid will do when he or she gets scared. They might freeze with fear, they might cry, they might even pass out, or (best case scenario) they might even face their fear head-on and conquer it.

At this moment in time, though, young Jack was sadly not one of those final few kids. In fact, he didn't know any kids who would react to fear in the same way he had not too much earlier in the day.

Jack Parker McCloud, an everyday tender and shy eight-year old Lylatian of the planet Corneria, sat alone in his room. Not because he had been grounded, but because he felt scared and ashamed. He himself was still desperate to understand what had just happened, but the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to forget it ever happened.

It had just happened so suddenly, and what scared him more was what he had done to stop it from potentially killing him.

"Jack?" called a voice from the doorway. "Can I come in?"

Jack didn't need to say anything. He knew Marcus would come in whether he asked him to or not, and that was proven fairly quickly. He said nothing, and Marcus sat close to him, looking at him with the comforting gaze he knew all too well. Jack couldn't bring himself to look into his father's eyes, but still felt his gaze pierce him and work its way into his mind. Even though Marcus was certainly not the man he once was, it didn't make him any less powerful in spirit and words.

"…I guess that man wants me to be put away, huh?" he finally asked.

"No, Jack. Your mother and I made sure that's not going to happen. Granted, the negotiations involved a lot of yelling and assuring that this wouldn't happen again…and yes. Your mom did eventually punch the guy in the face when he called you a mean name, but don't worry. We took care of everything."

"Dad…what did I do?"

Marcus wrapped his arm around Jack's shoulders while searching for an answer at the same time. He couldn't find one. There was no explanation for something like this.

"I don't know, but what I do know is that you did what you had to do."

"But I nearly killed him. Everyone saw…now they're gonna think I'm a freak."

"I know how that feels, but you can't let that drag you down, buddy."

"Wha…but I…I crushed that truck without even touching it."

"Well, think of it this way. What do you want to do with it?"

Do with it? He didn't even know what "it" was. He didn't know where it came from or why he could only do it now, and it couldn't have been genetic. That part of their family was long gone. It made no sense, and Marcus was asking him what he wanted to do with it? What could he do with it? Go out and be a superhero?

"I…I dunno."

"Exactly. What you do with whatever that was and with yourself is yours to decide. You used it today to protect yourself, not to harm that man. Who knows? You might use it again one day to protect those that you love."  
>"But…I'm no hero, Dad. I'm not brave like Veronica. I just…I'm scared of everything and everyone…I'll never be able to be like you."<p>

At last, Marcus stooped down in front of his son and smiled. The bright smile that Jack could never resist. Within seconds, he smiled in turn and knew that whatever his father was about to say, it was going to set his emotions right. For a little while, at least.

"Then don't be me, Jack. Be you."

Jack rushed forward and threw his arms around Marcus and let himself savour the moment his embrace was returned. He didn't know what he wanted from life, but he'd figure that out one step at a time like most normal kids did. He was a normal kid. What happened that day would just be something he'd shove out of his mind. Forget about. It wasn't his fault. He had just been fending for himself. No fault in that, right?

None at all. Marcus had made sure of that.

He felt happy…almost a little too happy. Like he was floating away. When he opened his eyes, he found to his shock that he had indeed floated away. There was nothing. His room was gone, his bed was gone…his father was gone.

And what were the voices he was hearing? They were echoing from everywhere. Surrounding him. Suffocating him. Steadily getting louder

"Jack…Jack…"

**Flash forward to the present…**

"Jack!"

"'The hell?! …what is it?"

"Just snapping you out of your stoned trance."

"…I'm stoned on music."

"That's what you said last time. I get that you're artistic, but it's like Dream Theater is the only thing you listen to."

"Shut up! Dream Theater's awesome!"

"Well, yeah, but still."

Pointless and unprovoked banter was common between the McCloud twins Jack and Veronica, with the latter always being the instigator and the former always finding himself one-upped in one way or another. Funny how he was the older sibling by a few minutes and could never beat his sister in a fight, verbal or otherwise.

He sighed in disgust and pulled off his headphones before shifting his gaze back to the window and staring out into space. Literally. The juvenile transport shuttle the two were on was cruising along through space at a comfortable speed on its way to Sauria. Jack wasn't sure how excited he was. The whole idea of the field trip was to write a paper on any random thing he found there, and while Veronica planned to head up to Moon Mountain Pass with her friend Jessie and doing their paper on some of the animals that lived up there. Jack meanwhile had something a little more…sentimental in mind.

There was a knock at their cabin's door. Veronica looked over through the window and smiled at Jessie who was accompanied by her boyfriend Mike. She motioned for them to come in while Jack groaned in disgust.

"C'mon, don't let them in here." he whined.

"Why not?"

"Because Jessie's the most annoying girl I've ever met in my life? I dunno, maybe it's just because she keeps asking me what I do when I hang out by myself and I have no intention of answering her because…meh?"

"Or because Mike still thinks you're weird? Not helped by the fact that you never talk to anyone?"

"Shut up."

"I'm letting 'em in anyway."

"What the hell?!"

Jessie and Mike entered the cabin and sat down close to the twins, Mike shooting an unnerved glance at Jack as he did so and Jack responding with another look out the window. Mike had been one of the few kids who'd seen what Jack did eight years ago and, like Veronica had said, had always looked at him like a freak. But then again, he was dating the most annoying girl he'd ever met, so it evened out…at least in his mind.

"Jack, why are dressed like that?" Jessie laughed. "We're going to a summer paradise full of dinosaurs, not freakin' Fichina. Why are you dressed like an Eskimo?"

By Eskimo, she meant a loose and light leather jacket and T-shirt with cargo pants and sneakers and of course a beanie with his silver "emo-do" jetting out from underneath. He wore it because it was comfortable and personally thought he looked decent in it

"Jessie, if I want your opinion on the way I dress, I'll ask for it, okay?."

"Jack, don't be rude!" Veronica growled.

"It's the truth, though…hey, check it out. We're passing Venom."

Not that Venom was really worth looking at even though it was gradually being restored to a more pristine state, but he needed something to break the tense moment. He reached up to put his headphones back on when Veronica slapped his hand down.

"No. Bad dog. You talk to them. Socialize."

"You're not Mom…"

"Well, that's exactly what Mom wanted me to get you to do, so do it."

Jack groaned, but nonetheless wheeled around and faced the two without looking into their eyes. Every time he looked into someone's eyes other than those of someone in his family, they started making weird and uncomfortable faces like he was inadvertently doing something to them. He knew it was polite to look someone in the eyes when you were talking to them and vice versa, but how could he do that if they were going to look at him so weirdly?

"So Mike," started Veronica. "What were you thinking you'd do your paper on?"

"I…really have no idea." Mike replied with a scratch at the back of his head. "I'm just gonna see what's there. I mean, it's a planet full of dinosaurs. You'd have to be high or something to think that there ISN'T anything there worth doing a report on."

Jessie laughed and snuggled against her boyfriend, simultaneously making Jack want to roll his eyes. He hated how clingy she was. She always needed help with something.

Then again, Jack certainly needed help shielding himself from all the crap directed at him whenever Veronica talked about him.

"Jack's already got his raring to go. Isn't that right?"

He looked up and saw Mike and Jessie staring at him in curiosity. He grunted in response, but that didn't get them to stop looking or prevent Jessie from speaking.

"So what's it about?"

"…the Warpstone's Grove."

"The who and…what?"

"This thing with a big rock thing and the waterfall thing and the…thing."

"…okay, now you're just fuckin' with me."

Jack shook his head.

"False." he said before jerking his thumb at Mike. "He is."

Much to his surprise, Mike and Jessie both started laughing so hard it sounded like their lungs would burst. He eventually found himself smirking while Veronica kept looking at him like he'd spat at them. She could at least give him credit for actually socializing, but it shouldn't have been at the cost of making a jab at Jessie…even if it was kind of funny.

"Seriously, though." Mike asked when he recovered from his hysterical fit. "There's gotta be some reason you're doing that, right?"

"Well…sure. It's beautiful, the Warpstone's a friendly guy…"

"And you know this how?"

"Our parents told us." said Veronica before Jack could speak. "Trust me when I say that place holds quite a bit of sentimental value."

Jessie mischievously grinned and lightly tapped at Jack's shin with her foot. He was tempted to kick back at her, but he didn't need her whining about it for the rest of the day. She was the kind of person to do that kind of thing.

"And just what kind of sentimental value is that?" she asked.

"I'm not telling you."

"Please?"

"No."

"I'll be your best buddy."

"…yeah, how about no?"

"Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

"Dramatic movie falling time: noooooooooooooooo-OW! Motherf…what did you do that for?!"

Veronica recoiled her foot with her arms crossed and her brow furrowed before she cocked her head at Jessie. Jack gritted his teeth and grumbled to himself for several moments before finally answering.

"Fine. It was the spot that our mom and dad first made out with each other. I swear to God that's true."

Jessie and Mike both started stifling their laughter and Jack grew increasingly more irritated.

"Yeah, hahahaha." he sarcastically droned. "Neurotic sixteen-year old with the 'freaky psychic powers' thinks highly of his mom and dad. Hahahaha."

"Aw, c'mon, Jack!" Jessie chirped. "Don't be like that."

"No, I will be like that, Jessie! Funnily enough, having something forced out of me doesn't make it any less discomforting!"

"Funnily enough, you talking like that is the reason why everyone thinks you're weird."

Jack was silent before furrowing his brow and going back to looking out the window.

"Go away please."

"Jack!" Veronica half-shouted.

"Don't wanna hear it."

Jessie sighed as she and Mike stood up and swiped the door switch.

"No, it's fine. We were thinking of heading back anyway. We'll see you guys when we land."

The two left, and as soon as the door shut, Veronica was on Jack like a ravenous dog…not that she wasn't already one.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Hey, I told you not to let them in, didn't I?"

"You know she's right! You're never going to make friends acting like a cynical jerkoff! Seriously! Why don't you ever talk to anyone?!"

"I…just never have anything to say."

"Then figure something out on the spot! It's not that difficult of a concept, Jack!"

What really set Jack on edge throughout the entire conversation wasn't that Veronica was angry at him (admittedly, she had every right to be angry), but how angry she was. She was ready to pounce on him and start beating him to a pulp by the sound of it.

"No, seriously, Jack! Give me one good reason why you don't talk to anyone! You're not in a club at school, you don't go to parties, you barely go outside at all, and you never talk to anyone at school! What is your problem?! Why did you even bother to go on this trip if you're not going to talk to anyone?!"

Then Jack did what Veronica could only describe as a trait inherited from their maternal grandfather. He looked her dead in the eye with the most furious stare she'd ever seen from him or anyone else. Every hint of anger in her mind was wiped away the second she made eye contact with him, and even when he turned away from her seconds later, it still left a lasting mark of intimidation. It was a wonder she ever found the courage to speak to him again.

"W-well…there has to be someone you'd connect with. I mean…what about Sheena Palencia? Aren't you and her pretty much the same thing personality-wise?"

At least Jack's glare was gone, but he still wasn't looking at her and was still speaking in that nervous tone he was known best for.

"What, the goth chick? Sure, she's hot, but…it's that special kind of hot where she's scary at the same time…and didn't she change her name to Luna or something?"

"What, you don't think the two of you would hit it off?"

"Provided she didn't stare at me like she was going to kill me if I came any closer? Maybe…probably not."

Veronica chuckled. Sure, Jack was antisocial and cold sometimes, but he could at least brighten the mood with a good joke every once in a while.

"Well, just talk to her. Loosen up a bit, get to know her and maybe ask her out. Aren't you the one always looking for excitement in his life?"

"Uh, no. That's you. Y'know, the snowboarding wild extreme crazy lady."

"Oh…but you're can't go through high school without a date, right?"

"I guess not…but a little monkey wrench thrown in our average everyday lives wouldn't hurt, right?"

Any thoughts of taking their lives one step further was quickly interrupted when the transport suddenly chugged to a halt…almost like something was holding onto it.

"Why are we stopping?" asked Veronica. "There's no way we can be there yet."

Jack looked out the window and saw that Veronica was 100% right. Granted, he could see Sauria off in the distance but there was still a long way to go before they reached it. What he did see that caught his eye was the misty planet below them. Small, definitely smaller than their home planet Corneria, but having a strange aura about it. It was like staring into a lake and feeling like you were going to jump in or have something come up and forcibly pull you in. Something about it just didn't seem right. Then again, one could say the same thing about Venom, but Jack could only hope they weren't making a pit stop on this planet…whatever it was.

Then the transport shook violently and knocked the two of their feet. The shake was large enough to cause the lights to flicker and eventually go out, Veronica crying out in shock upon this happening and Jack swiping at the door switch in a panic-stricken manner to no avail.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Veronica cried.

At last, Jack looked out the window just in time to see a shadow reach its way down as it grasped at the ship's underside.

"Oh, God…there's something moving out there!"

He didn't know why he got closer to the window in a futile attempt to see what was going on, but he certainly regretted it. From the darkness came four massive red eyes. No pupils, no irises, no veins. Just leering red eyes. He reeled backward with a gasp, the cabin flooded with blood-red light that illuminated him and his sister perfectly.

Then came a horrible screech. The ship began to rattle, they heard the creaking and groaning of metal starting to bend, and they heard their own panic. Their panting, their hearts beating like hammers.

And then…they fell.

* * *

><p><em><strong>So yeah. What happened to me waiting to finish Nintendo X Capcom and the crossover Star Fox story that I haven't spoiled all the details on because...peanuts? Well, I get sporadic work done on a lot of different projects at the same time, so by the time I said that, this chapter was already halfway done and leaving it to collect dust just didn't feel right. Keep in mind, though: this project's not my top priority right now so don't expect another chapter out for a while.<strong>_

**_SOUNDTRACK SO FAR_**

_Meet Jack McCloud_- "Solitary Shell" by Dream Theater (see? There was some relevance to him considering them awesome.)


	3. 2: Hell's Bells

CHAPTER TWO

**Hell's Bells**

It was a wonder they even survived, but Lord knows they certainly didn't get away without a couple of brutal-looking scratches and bruises. Jack stumbled about on his feet for several moments while Veronica remained on her hands and knees and swore she was seconds away from coughing up blood.

"Oh my God, what the…" Jack groaned before he realized just what was going on. "Oh, shit!"

His gaze shot toward the sky and he could just barely make out their transport, smoking heavily but still airborne…and flying away!

"WAIT!" he screamed as though the passengers and driver would hear him. "WE'RE DOWN HERE! HELP!"

He ran forward waving his arms like a madman, praying on his life that someone up there would notice him. Anyone! No one did. He felt on the verge of crying as the ship began cruising away. Away into the mist until he couldn't see it anymore.

"NO!" he cried, yelling out in pain when he stamped his foot down in fury only for it to send a terrible pain shooting up through his leg, an indication that he'd taken a bigger hit from the crash-landing than he'd thought.

As Veronica got to her feet and looked around, her brother trembling in defeat was the first thing to catch her interest. The second was what was left of their cabin, lying behind her in a mess of glass and metal. The third and final thing was their surroundings. The trees were some of the largest she'd ever seen. She couldn't even see the canopy through the thick fog. Even more unnerving was the general lack of light. Being half-wolf, darkness wasn't a big issue for either her or Jack, but that still didn't detract from one last thing: the entire forest was eerily quiet. One could hear a pin drop even into the soft cushiony grass with little effort.

At last, Veronica decided to put her unease aside for the time being and approached her brother, lightly pulling him to his feet after he'd collapsed to his knees.

"Jack…what happened?!"  
>"The transport! It flew off without us!"<p>

"What?!"

Veronica looked up and saw the trail of exhaust the transport had left, and in seconds, she too began to feel panic.

"Oh, God, this isn't good. Where the hell even are we?!"

Jack bit his lip and nervously tapped his foot against the ground. Surely once the people up there realized that he and Veronica had been stranded, they'd come back…right?

"Th-they're gonna come back, aren't they?!" he stammered.

"Okay, okay." Veronica panted, taking in a deep breath and letting it out. "Let's just calm down for a sec. Hopefully, yes. They might come back, but we're just going to have to assume the worst case scenario that they're not."

"Yeah, way to stay positive in a bad situation."

"The point being that there has to be some sort of base around here somewhere, right? We get there, we radio someone for help. That simple."

"Fine…but where do you propose we look? I can't see a damn thing in this fog!"

Veronica opened her mouth to speak when something at a fair distance away caught her eye. A distinct light was ripping through the fog. It wasn't exceptionally bright and it certainly wasn't promising considering it was the only light they could see. Staying put and waiting to get rescued would have been the better idea, but they were in the middle of the woods in what looked like the middle of the night. There could be nocturnal predators at every corner for all they knew.

"Let's go that way."

"But we don't even know what's over there?"

"Hey, do you wanna get help or not?"

Veronica heard Jack make a strange guttural whine, but he nevertheless followed her. She rolled her eyes and condemned him for being a coward in her mind, but to his credit, though, even she was afraid for one simple reason: it was just too quiet. She was used to the hustle and bustle of Corneria's capital city and only enjoyed silence when she was trying to sleep. Otherwise, silence was usually just a minor annoyance, but she could now feel herself starting to sweat, letting the silence drone over her and her brother until it was finally broken by an eerie sound in the far distance.

The loud and deep tolling of a bell. Every few seconds it would toll again, sending another series of shivers up the twins' spines. They couldn't pinpoint the source of the sound. It seemed to echo from everywhere at once, further intensifying the ominous air and making the two wish they had just stayed where they were and wait to be rescued. They usually didn't think in the same way, but they both knew now that they were thinking the exact same thing. Something was watching them, and neither one of them could imagine what it was. If it was anything like whatever had attacked the transport shuttle, they wanted nothing to do with it.

But they pressed on. Just keep walking toward the light, they told themselves. There had to be someone who could help them…right?

"Oh, thank God…" they both thought when they finally saw the source of the light.

It may have been a relief to finally see a building, but there were surprised to see that it was a bar of all things. The light was coming from a spotlight on the top of it, angled in the direction they had just come from. It looked a little rundown with some ivy growing along the walls, but other than that, it was perfectly intact.

"Hello?" Veronica called. "Anyone there?"

"What are you doing?!" Jack whispered through clenched teeth. "Look at that! That's serial killer material right there! Jack the Ripper-type shit!"

"Quit being such a baby!"

"So being cautious is considered baby-like in this day and age?!"

"Oh, God. Just come on."

Veronica practically had to drag her older brother by the wrist before they finally managed to set foot inside. To their surprise, the inside was quite well-kept. There wasn't a speck of dust or a single cobweb in sight, and even though it looked like the place hadn't had any business in a while as was to be expected, everything was laid out as though the owner had been expecting someone. Coupled with the direction the spotlight had been pointing (ignoring that there was even a spotlight attached to a bar at all), Jack's anxiousness flared up even more. Maybe he was being paranoid which he was clearly good at, and Veronica may have been sure that nothing was going to go wrong, but he refused to let his guard down, especially when they finally saw something of interest.

It was a man with his back to them, sitting perfectly erect and with his hands laid in his lap. His head was tilted downward, making it look like he was mourning something. For whatever reason, he was wearing a billowing trench coat. Jack started to feel a chill run up his spine the longer he looked at the man, shooting Veronica a mixed look of fright and venom when she nudged him forward, but nonetheless reached out his shivering hand.

"Uh, excuse me. Sir?"

The man's head slowly rose and he turned to face Jack, an odd but otherwise welcoming smile on his face. His eyes were lazily half-shut, but once the two of them made eye contact, they opened. Wide. Like he had just been jump-scared. And it wasn't pretty to look at.

"Well, hello there!" he said in an unnervingly warm manner before extending his hand. "Name's Albert."

"Uh…Jack." Jack replied as he hesitantly took Albert's hand and shook it. "Jack McCloud."

"Good to meet you, Jack. And you?"

Veronica jumped slightly when Albert turned his attention toward her, but regained her calm and polite composure when he stood and offered forth his hand.

"Veronica McCloud."

"Oh, brother and sister, eh?" Albert said with a light chuckle. "Twins?"

"Yeah. He's the older one, but he certainly doesn't act like it."

Jack gritted his teeth and turned away from the two, reminding himself to take a good swat at his sister once they weren't in someone else's presence. That someone else let out a big hearty laugh.

"Sibling rivalry. Gets the best of us. Of course, me and my sister got over that long ago."

"Al! Is someone here?" a voice called from up the nearby flight of stairs.

"Well, speak of the devil! We've got company, sis!"

There came the light and echoing thuds of feet on the floor before a woman about the same age and even facial structure as Albert descended the stairs, garbed in high heels and a great deal of leather clothing that hugged her curvaceous body, looking very dominatrix-like. Jack averted his eyes, Veronica cocking her head with a scowl and getting him to look back albeit begrudgingly, and it seemed that the woman had been waiting for him to do so as she pulled him against her the second they made eye contact.

"And aren't they just cute as a button!" she chirped. "Nice to meet you two! I'm Sabrina!"

"Um…c-could you please let go of me now?!" Jack sputtered.

She obeyed and Jack shook himself when he knew she wasn't looking. It wasn't that he didn't like girls, but he certainly didn't like them getting so close to him.

"So what brings you two here?" Albert asked.

"We were on our way to Sauria and part of the ship taking us there fell off." said Veronica. "Tell you the truth, I'm not a hundred percent sure exactly what happened. We were just looking for help and we came across you guys, so…yeah. Can you help us?"

"Of course! That old transceiver oughta be around here somewhere. It's primitive, sure, but it works like a charm. C'mon, let's you and me go find it."

Veronica nodded and walked off with Albert up the stairs, leaving Jack alone with Sabrina. The older twin tried his best to keep his eyes from settling on his company, but the longer she stared at him with that same creepy grin on her face, the more nervous he started to feel until he finally looked.

"Your sister seems nice." Sabrina said.

"Yeah, she…she is…kinda…"

"Kinda?"

"Do you have anything to drink?"

Sabrina stifled a laugh.

"Way to subtly change the subject. Are you alright, honey?"

"I'm fine. I just…I'm scared."

"Not of little old me, I hope."

Exactly of little old her, as a matter of fact, but he'd gotten enough lectures from his sister about being rude to keep his mouth shut about it. Nonetheless, he had every thought to demand that Sabrina leave him alone what with her constantly staring at him with…red eyes? Why were her eyes red? Not that it was that weird. He himself had heterochromia iridum with one eye being blue and the other one being hazel matching the eyes of his mother and father respectively, so why was he getting freaked out?

Maybe it was because she wouldn't stop staring at him like a piece of meat.

"Seriously, though, do you have anything to drink?" he asked.

"Sure thing. Follow me."

She led him behind the nearby counter and rifled through the fridge before producing a bottle of some strange red liquid.

"Here you go, hon. Nice and chilled for you."

"Thanks. What is it?"

"Give it a try and find out."

Jack raised an eyebrow, but nonetheless opened the bottle. The scent that wafted into his nostrils made him freeze for a second, but that second lasted about an hour in his head. It was a feeling of dread. The scent was familiar. He couldn't really describe it, but he knew it. Where had he smelled it before? Simple: from various injuries he'd suffered over his sixteen years.

"What's wrong?" Sabrina asked. "Don't let it go to waste now."

Still not fully convinced, Jack stuck his finger in the liquid and felt it. It was runny and thin, and combined with the scent, Jack steadily realized in horror what this was.

"This…this is…"

"You changed your mind? Oh, well. More for me."

Sabrina plucked the bottle from Jack's hand, and he watched in disgust and shock as she gluttonously chugged down every last drop. When she was finished, she turned to him with the same disturbing smile, licking her lips and smiling with her lips parted. The second Jack saw the sharpness of her teeth, the dread was out the window and he was in full panic mode.

"Mmm." Sabrina cooed. "Delicious. Now how about you?"

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Jack cried.

He stumbled backward, tripping over his own feet and tumbling over the counter. He groaned at the pain in his back, but leaped to his feet when he caught sight of Sabrina menacingly advancing on him. Without a second thought, he seized a nearby bottle and cracked it over a table, pointing at whatever this crazy bitch was.

"Come on, sweetheart. There's no need to be so rough."

"Y-you…you're a…you're a f-fucking vampire?!"

"Vampire? Close enough. Fucking? Is that what you'd like? I'd be happy to oblige, but first…"

She bared her fangs and Jack reflexively swung the broken bottle at her. She snapped at his wrist. He pulled back with a loud cry of fright, falling backward onto his rear end and pushing himself away from her as fast as he could while she laughed at him.

"The cornered rat will bite the cat…or the cat'll bite the dog, but you get the idea."

"Get away from me, you monster! I swear I'm gonna…"

"Call your sister? Don't worry. I'm sure Al's taking good care of her."

It was then that a bloodcurdling scream rang out from the second floor, loud and fast thumps echoing until Veronica came tearing down the stairs, sliding to a stop right next to Jack with her fists raised.

"Jack, these people are out of their freakin' minds!"

"See?! I told you there was something screwy about this place!"

Albert's loud cackling echoed down the hall before he strode up next to his sister, still with that same frighteningly wide grin on his face.

"You two picked just the right time to stop by. The hunt's already started and we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get you first."

"We're not your food, you sick freaks!" Veronica spat. "I swear to God, if you come any closer, I'll rip your Goddamned throats out!"

"I wouldn't count on it, sweetie." Sabrina hissed as she grabbed Jack's wrist. "We're a little tougher than you OW! MOTHERFUCKER!"

Jack had instinctively slashed Sabrina's arm the second she touched him and threw what remained of his weapon at Albert, who caught it and crushed it in his one hand. The two made for the door only for Albert to land in front of them with one single bound, and when they turned to run for a nearby window, there stood Sabrina, the deep gash Jack left on her having healed in a matter of moments.

"What did I just say?" she asked. "Now be a couple of good little children and listen your elders."

"You should feel honored, actually." said Albert as he ran his tongue along his teeth. "What comes after this is true bliss."

"Rhyming, are we?" Veronica growled. "In that case, why don't you go ahead and drink your own piss?! Jack! Bend over!"

Jack didn't know where this was going, but he obeyed in an instant. The second he had done so, Albert and Sabrina lunged inward and Veronica sprang into action, planting her hands on her brother's back and balancing herself perfectly. Jack's legs came near to buckling, but he held Veronica up as she kicked both her legs outward, striking the two bloodthirsty monsters in the face and sending them both stumbling backwards.

"Nice moves…" Jack panted. "But you need to lose some weight."

"Oh, shut up. It worked, didn't it?"

Without a second thought, Veronica grabbed a nearby bottle and threw it at the closest window, shattering it and leaving a fair-sized opening for the two to escape. Jack sliced his hand as he pulled himself through, putting it to his mouth and sucking as he followed his sister to the nearby bushes. He would have started whining about it, but he had far worse things to worry about.

"Shit, they're coming out!" Veronica seethed. "Get down!"

She jumped down into the bushes and dragged Jack along with her, cupping her hand over his mouth and whispering for him to stay quiet as though she really needed to tell him. As Albert and Sabrina came out of the building, both looking like they were ready to rip the twins apart, the twins themselves stayed perfectly still and took quick yet silent breathes. They couldn't shake the fear that even the faintest heartbeat would alert their pursuers to their presence.

"I can't believe those little shits…" Sabrina hissed. "They don't honestly think they'll get away from us, do they?"

"They won't. Don't start getting worried." said Albert. "Just keep looking."

They were getting closer. Jack squeezed his eyes shut and Veronica bit her lip as they both sank lower. The two monsters began sniffing at the air as they slowly stalked toward the twins' location. They started to sweat and began to feel their hearts hammer in their chest, and they prepared to be dragged out when…

"What the hell?!" Sabrina shrieked.

A large explosion had come from inside the bar, and the two immediately left to investigate, finally giving the McCloud twins some time to try and relax and make sense of what had just happened.

"Was covering my mouth really necessary?!" Jack growled. "I mean, I know I'm panicky and all that, but seriously?!"

"What happened over there…" Veronica muttered to herself.

"Uh, hello? Still talking here!"

Veronica stood up as did Jack, the latter at this point just fed up with this whole situation and wanting to just ditch the whole thing and go back home. They didn't dare to go back near the bar, but who was to say there wasn't more of those monsters out there somewhere?

"Psst!"

The twins looked all about as a voice called to them, both worried that it was another vampire or whatever Albert and Sabrina had been and both flinching when they saw movement in the branches a fair distance from them. That something, however, wasn't any sort of ugly monster or maniac or anything, but it certainly wasn't what either of them were expecting.

"Is that a human?"

Said human being a young Caucasian male looking to be in his early twenties, shaggy black hair flowing from his scalp and a whole outfit of loose-fitting military gear that still had a rather street punk-like appearance. He was certainly well equipped with a pistol in the holster on his belt, a shotgun on his back, and a belt lined with a few grenades along his hips. One of the clips dangled loosely, hinting that he had used one already. In fact, when Veronica jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the still-smoking bar, he nodded.

The human got down to the ground, growling to himself when he realized his feet let out too loud of a thud. Albert and Sabrina had quickly realized that no one was in the bar, and when they looked outside and spotted their prey escaping, they both raised their heads skyward and let out horrid shrieks that echoed throughout the woods. They were instantly answered with more shrieks from all over the forest.

"Oh, shit, they're coming!" the human growled to himself as he started sprinting away, but not before turning back to the twins. "What the fuck are you two doing?! GET MOVING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE! RUN FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! RUN!"

And they ran. Good Lord, they ran. So fast that it felt like their legs would snap clean off, but once they built up the tenacity to look over their shoulders as the launched themselves over logs and through trees, they wouldn't dare to stop even if someone had hacked their legs off with a chainsaw. Along with Albert and Sabrina, there were about a dozen other manic-looking cougars, all running with the sharp teeth bared and their eyes wide.

One particular cougar took a flying leap, coming forward at a near impossible speed with his hands outstretched and barreling right toward Jack. A shot rang out and the monster of a man went flying backward as the bullet burrowed a hole in the back of his throat, Jack and Veronica's human companion holstering his pistol and growling to himself when he watched the hole start to stitch itself up in a matter of seconds.

"Oh my God, these things are unstoppable!" Jack shouted.

"Doesn't matter!" the human hollered. "Keep running! We're almost there!"

"Where?!"

They saw it in a matter of seconds: a large manhole slanting downward into the ground. As they approached it, the human kicked up a circular metal cover, flicked out his shotgun and began firing at the incoming horde. Even when the volatile spreads hit their intended targets, they just kept on coming.

"Son of a bitch…" he growled to himself. "Ah, never mind. Got the two out safely."

He slid to a stop in front of the manhole and cocked his head toward it as the twins followed him.

"Okay, you two! Get in!"

Veronica nodded and made for the hole almost immediately, but all Jack did was stare at it in disgust while the horrid shrieks continued to build in his ears.

"Jack!" Veronica shouted. "Go!"

"Are you kidding me?! A sewer?!"

"Dammit, Jack, stop being a pussy and get in there!"

With one kick to the back of his pants, Veronica sent Jack tumbling down the manhole before she jumped in after him, and once he was sure they were both out of reach of the still-coming monsters, the human jumped in and slammed the cover on as he slid downward. The monsters outside did whatever they could to try and pry it off, and the constant banging and shrieking didn't quell the fears of the three as they slid further downward, but once everything went silent and they came to a stop on the damp concrete at the bottom of the well, they took a few moments to relax…right before Jack sprung to his feet after tumbling down the shaft head over heels.

"You jackass!" he yelled at his sister. "I could have broken my neck like five times back there!"

"Hey, if you didn't move, you'd have been vampire food!"

"Oh, sure, and I guess shoving me down a…"

The human stepped between the two bickering siblings with a sigh.

"Come on." he said sternly. "You've got bigger things to worry about right now than a little sibling rivalry."

"…thanks." Jack finally said, offering forth his hand and the human taking it almost instantly.

"Don't mention it, Jack. The important thing is that you're both okay. Follow me."

The human proceeded down the dark catacomb with Jack and Veronica following closely behind.

"So do you mind explaining exactly what that was all about?" Veronica asked.

"They're Nosferats. That's what they do."

"Nosfer…okay, you've got a lot of explaining to do here, pal! Quit walking away from me!"

"I will explain. Just not here. Once we're in the safe zone."

Veronica stopped talking, but question after question still rang through her head and through Jack's. None of this made any sense. It didn't make sense that they had crashed on this uncharted planet, it didn't make sense that those people had just suddenly attacked them, and it didn't make sense that there was a human here helping them. He had to be military judging from his gear, but he looked far too unkempt to be any sort of frontline guy.

"Who are you?" Jack finally asked.

He was relieved that this question got an answer after how stern he had been before. The human looked over his shoulder, and though the twins couldn't be sure, they had a feeling that a big smile had grown on his face. A smile they could thankfully trust.

"Thought you'd never ask." he said. "My name's Aaron. Aaron Halen."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Jesus, it's about time I got this up, huh? <strong>_

**_SOUNDTRACK SO FAR_**

_Meet Jack McCloud_- "Solitary Shell" by Dream Theater

_When bloodsuckers attack- _"Before I Forget" by Slipknot


	4. 3: Fellowship

CHAPTER THREE

**Fellowship**

Aaron pushed up the manhole cover and the three at last crawled out the sewer's opposite end. The sight before Jack and Veronica was an absolute marvel, for they had arrived in a massive and luscious greenhouse. Moonlight streamed in from the exceedingly high glass ceiling, several massive trees stretched all about, and a crystal clear lake in the center. Aaron's description of it being a "safe zone" was an understatement. Its beauty was just the thing they needed after getting chased through the dark woods.

"How have they not found this place yet?" asked Veronica. "It's not like it's that well-hidden."

"Beats me." answered Aaron. "Guess they're just a bunch of lazy jackoffs that prefer to have their meal come to them."

Veronica winced at the sound of Aaron's voice. Neither she nor Jack had a problem with humans. If anything, they both thought this otherworldly species was nothing short of fascinating. The problem was that they felt so daunted with the fact that they were accompanied by Soren Halen's son. Even if he did look and act like any other guy, they couldn't shake their nervousness. They were in the presence of the son of Lylat's first human contact, and even if he treated them like friends

"Relax, guys." he said suddenly. "I'm not your commander or anything. Granted, I probably gotta teach you a few survival skills if you're gonna make it on this planet, but all four of us are equals."

"Uhh…great. Thanks." said Jack. "…wait a sec. Four? Where's the fourth one?"

"She's around here somewhere. She's usually hanging out in the trees or something and she really likes sneaking up on me for some reason. Tell me if you guys spot her, okay?"

"Hanging out in the…what?"

After that description, Jack had half-expected a happy-go-lucky hippie girl or something if she was hanging out in a tree…and then his eyes roamed slightly to the left and he spotted something in a nearby tree right in the corner of his vision. A curvaceous shape crouched on top of a branch, one hand pressed against the trunk while narrowed eyes leered down on the three as they passed. Jack came to a stop, and the eyes focused on him. He already didn't like getting stared at, but this went far beyond that. He began to get the feeling that whatever was in the tree was about to come down and murder him in cold blood, and the longer it stared at him, the more he began to think running away wasn't a bad idea.

"Oh, good. You found her." said Aaron, Jack jumping slightly at the sudden surprise. "Hey, June! Come on down and meet our new blood!"

The figure dropped down from the treetops and approached them slowly, as though she were worried that they'd attack the second she got too close. Ironic considering she was by far the most fearsome of the four.

"Jack and Veronica McCloud, I'd like you to meet June Hertzler."

Veronica gave a short wave to the Amazonian-like June, giving Jack a nudge when he didn't do the same. Reluctantly, Jack raised his hand and waved.

"Uhh…hi…sup?"

No answer. As expected, actually.

"So what's your story?" Veronica asked her.

"I ran into her a little while after I got here." Aaron said when he got the sneaking suspicion June wasn't going to answer. "Said she got lost or something."

If Jack had been slightly thrown off seeing a human for the very first time, words could do no justice to describe the shock June had given him just from the way she looked. The first thing was her body: not only was she very physically attractive, she was tall. Really REALLY tall. Just over six feet by the looks of it. She had dark gray fur and long black hair that hung behind her almost like a cape, though some draped over one eye.

Second was her attire. Everything she wore was black. A black corset, a black skirt that hugged her hips tightly, a fingerless glove on her left hand, laced stockings that trailed up her legs, and platform boots going all the way up to her knees and making her look a lot taller than she already was. Okay, so it was a typical goth getup. It wasn't that big of a deal. Jack saw a lot of those back on Corneria. What tipped into being a big deal was the last thing that unnerved him: her face.

To be frank, her face was very beautiful, but it was that certain kind of beautiful that was scary at the same time. Her eyes were lazily half-shut and her mouth was in an expressionless scowl like she didn't have a single care in the universe. At least, that was what she had looked like before setting her eyes on Jack, at which time her eyes opened all the way and he saw the last bit about her face that scared him. Her eyes were a deep violet and had a hypnotizing feel to them…almost like she was trying to coax him into coming closer without saying anything.

"You'll have to excuse her." Aaron said, finally bringing Jack back to reality. "She doesn't talk too much, and even then she never really has anything to say."

June looked over at him with an eyebrow raised, giving Jack some sense of relief when she finally took her eyes off of him, but that relief only lasted a moment. Her eyes were back on him in an instant, prompting Aaron to joke at him yet again.

"Seems she's taken a fancy to you." he chuckled. "That's good. You need to keep your friends close in situations like this."

But she wasn't his friend. Jack now understood the look June was giving him. It wasn't a look of friendship or mesmerisation. She was looking at him like he was prey…but that couldn't be right. If it was, why would she be with Aaron? Nevertheless, the stare bored its way into his mind, like she was reading it…trying to slowly unravel it.

He couldn't take it.

"Quit staring at me!" he finally shouted, only to yelp when Veronica smacked him over the head.

"Don't be rude!" his sister said sternly before turning to June. "I'm so sorry. He's really solitary. I can't get him to do anything social back home."

June nodded and finally stopped looking at Jack, but it didn't feel that way. He would remember that face for the rest of his life, and was it weird that he was getting the same vibe from June that he'd gotten from Albert and Sabrina before they went into full nut mode?

"Now that we're all properly introduced, you guys still want that explanation as to what's going on?" Aaron asked.  
>"Is that a question?" said Veronica. "Okay, being serious here. What exactly is going on here?"<p>

To her chagrin, Aaron shrugged.

"In all honesty, I've got pretty much no idea. Like I said, those things out there call themselves Nosferats."

"Yeah, 'rats' is right." Jack grumbled to himself.

"But yeah. They're the typical blood-drinking monsters you'd expect them to be, but there's one huge problem. They don't have the ton and a half of weaknesses that supposedly kill vampires. That, or none of it's here. No garlic, no hawthorn bushes. I tried a cross, and that didn't work, and I don't think daytime is a thing here, so sunlight's out."

"What about decapitation?"

"Tried that. Any form of mutilation doesn't work. They heal almost instantly. In fact, you wanna know what happens if you blow one of its limbs off or its head?"

"Dare I ask?"

"Simple. They just pull themselves back together."

There came several moments of silence where neither Jack nor Veronica had the ability to speak, but they certainly had the good sense to let their eyes go wide as they envisioned one of these so-called Nosferats getting blown to bits and then somehow pulling itself back together. Once Aaron saw that, he shrugged and nodded.

"Yeah." he said. "The first time I saw that, I think I shit myself."

"O…o-okay, ummm…." Veronica stammered. "W-what about shooting them in the heart? Did you try that?"

"Yep. Didn't work."

"Oh, God…so you're telling me we can't kill these things?!"

"Don't worry. We can."

"But you just ran through practically every vampire cliché in the book and none of them work!"

"You know what happens when you shoot something? It gets hurt and bleeds, right?"  
>"Umm…sure?"<p>

"They bleed. If they bleed, we can kill them."

Jack's ear twitched when he heard June lightly crack her knuckle. He didn't dare look at her lest they make eye contact and make him feel like a piece of meat again.

"But before we can even think about trying to kill them," Aaron continued. "We need to make sure you guys are actually capable of doing so, so if you'll follow me."

They followed him albeit hesitantly, arriving at a large metal container sitting at the base of one of the luscious rolling hills. He flipped the latch and opened the lid, and what was inside was…significantly less than what the twins had hoped. There were guns, certainly, but they weren't the kind of guns one would think of using against a horde of bloodsucking monsters. A couple pistols, a shotgun or two, some hunting knives, and one single machine gun. Granted, there were some grenades there as well, but for the most part, this loadout just screamed "ill-equipped."

"Seriously?" Veronica whined. "This is all you've got?"

"Yeah. What do you think we're running here? The freakin' _Matrix_? …or wait. Do you have some kinda weird thing for guns?"

"…maybe."

Aaron stifled a laugh while Jack edged away from his sister, jumping forward by a fraction of an inch when he accidentally brushed up against June. Even if he couldn't see her, he could feel her eyes boring into the back of his head with that same creepy stare. Goddammit, why did she have to keep looking at him like that?!

"Anyhow," Aaron continued. "We've got a makeshift shooting range set up a little ways away. Grab whatever you like and we'll show you the ropes."

"Is there really a point to that?" Jack asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it's a gun. You point it and shoot it. How hard could it possibly be?"

For anyone that has actually used a gun before? Not at all. For a complete newbie like Jack? Well, after five minutes of continuously missing one single tin can that wasn't even that far away from him because of the recoil, he was just about ready to throw in the towel. Of course Veronica was getting the hang of it without any trouble whatsoever, showing off all her slick moves like flipping and firing, aiming over her shoulder and firing, and even turning the gun on its side like that actually helped her aim better.

"Perfect!" Aaron cheered. "That's what I like to see!"

"Thanks!" Veronica called back.

"Here, try out a ricochet shot. These tree trunks are hard enough that the bullets just bounce right off 'em."

With Aaron clutching her arms for support, Veronica angled her gun at the closest tree, firing in such a way that it hit the trunk and bounced off in such a way that it hit another one of the nearby cans. In her excitement, Veronica looked over her shoulder and made eye contact with Aaron. They kept smiling at one another, but both started getting the feeling they were thinking the same thing.

"God, he's awesome."

"Holy shit, she's cute."

She flushed at his charming smile, and even he seemed a little embarrassed when he looked away. She bit her lip and he exhaled suddenly before turning back.

"O…okay, let's, uh…try that again, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Jack started furiously firing at his target, missing every time and growling about the recoil and getting too shaky to aim his shot right. He looked over at Veronica, steadily growing angrier the more she showed off. He directed his attention back to his target before she looked over at him and started firing again. He kept pulling the trigger until the barrel started clicking uselessly. He had wasted the entire clip and hadn't hit the target even once. He let out an angry shout and kicked up a piece of grass before dropping out the clip and sticking another one in, though not before missing a couple times.

"Son of a bitch, I can't even reload right!"

Veronica watched in dismay as her brother continued to desperately try to shoot just one target. At first she was irritated at him being so stubborn and not doing something as simple as perhaps moving closer or actually taking his time to set up his shot, but she saw how hard he was trying. Now that he had a weapon in his hands, he was trying to be tough and able to handle himself, but he just couldn't. She started to step forward, only for Aaron to hold out his arm.

"I can help him." she said.

"Don't." Aaron said. "He'll get it. Besides, someone kinda beat you to it."

Imagine Jack's surprise when he felt a pair of strong and slender arm clutch his as he aimed at his target again, lightly pushing against his elbows and straightening him out. Imagine his shock when he saw the arms' owner. June gave him that half-venomous half-seductive stare again, but even with the mixed signals aside, she was cold. So cold it felt like he was getting hugged by a snowbank or something. As he stood longer in her semi-embrace, though, she started to warm up. His skin kept crawling thanks to the stare he and wanted to get away in an instant, not bearing to look into her eyes even if she had softened them.

"Relax."

It was a barely audible whisper lacking any sort of tone, but just the sound of it immediately soothed Jack's restless spirit. She had come close. She had whispered it right into his ear, and as it echoed in his brain, he felt his muscles ease. With newfound confidence, he lightly cracked his neck and shut his left eye. A perfect line of fire Still with June's arms on him, he pulled the trigger. The bullet shot through the can and knocked it from its perch. A perfect hit.

"There you go, Jack!" Veronica cheered.

"Keep that up and you'll get by just fine!" said Aaron.

Jack finally felt a smile make its way to his face. He turned to June. Her expression hadn't changed, but he could feel a smile trying to get out, and that was all he needed.

"Thanks." He said.

Perhaps one word was all he would get out of her. She just nodded. No words, no change in her expression. She just kept staring at him. Way to kill the moment, but at least he felt good about himself for a change, especially when his sister and newfound human comrade arrived to pat him on the back.

"Now just try to make every shot like that." Aaron chuckled.

"Thanks for your reassurance." Jack said with a roll of his eyes. "But…"

"No, no. Don't let your inferiority complex ruin your moment, bro. Just let it go."

"Inferiority complex? …well, whatever. So do you think we're…"

"Ready to take on an entire horde? Considering we've got no flippin' clue how to kill them, no."

Again, way to kill the moment. Speaking of killing, right at that moment, all the lights letting the four see what they were doing went out, the room suddenly got unbelievably chilly, and the soft droning they heard from the trees stopped.

"What just happened?!" Jack half-shouted.

"Ah, shit…" Aaron growled. "What a time for the generator to go out, huh?"

He jogged over to a tiny clearing and dragged out the large red generator that had just sputtered and died. He opened the tank. Empty. He checked the three large containers sitting nearby. Empty.

"Funnily enough, my bag needs to be emptied, too."

He sighed. He didn't think the two newbies would have to be thrust out into battle so soon, but there was nothing else they could do. With the generator down, the security system wouldn't work and neither would the heater. Even with them being covered from head to toe in fur, this place got way too cold at night.

"Only one thing for it, then. We're gonna have to go grab a couple tanks full of gas. There's an old refueling spot a little ways north. If we move quick, we might be able to avoid attracting a horde. Everyone load up. We're heading out."

June nodded and started strapping a set of guns to her belt, leaving Jack and Veronica to look at Aaron like he was out of his mind when he clipped a few flashlights to their weapons.

"Are you serious?" Veronica seethed. "We've only just learned how to fight with guns and you honestly expect us to just go out there and handle ourselves in a firefight right away?!"

"Sorry, guys. No way in hell are we leaving you here to get torn to shreds."

"But…"

"Yeah, I know, but it's not worth the risk. You're coming with us. Once we get out there, everybody keep your flashlights on and stay close. The few seconds it might take you to catch up is all the time they need to rip you apart."

The twins sighed and looked at each other in pure fear. They knew they had no choice in the matter, but that didn't stop their skittishness from flaring up. They weren't ready. They knew they weren't ready and so did Aaron, and they had no idea when help would come or even if it would come. Putting up with this for as long as they could was just sickening to think about, but there was no avoiding it now.

They knew now that they had fallen straight into the depths of Hell.


	5. 4: First Hunt

CHAPTER FOUR

**First Hunt**

The flashlights cutting through the fog as the small excuse for a squadron trudged through the woods wasn't nearly enough to quell their anxiousness. Every single one of Aaron's warnings had frightened both Jack and Veronica to the point where they wanted to stick to the old plan and just wait to be rescued, but there was little to no chance of that. No one ever talked about this planet and it didn't show up on any map they'd ever seen. They didn't even know what it was called. They might as well have just called it Hell, because it certainly felt like it to them.

So they scouted through the forest, hoping they'd reach the refueling station before the Nosferats found them. God forbid they found them. Veronica, June, and Aaron each had one of the gas containers strapped to their backs. Jack had offered to take one, but Aaron said he wasn't strong enough to carry it back. Yet another thing for Jack to brood about. Another thing to make him feel completely worthless.

"Jeez, the guy even likes me and he can't help but put me down…" he thought to himself. "…and is June seriously still staring at me?! That's not even an intimidating stare anymore! That's an 'I'm going to rape you' stare! What's scarier? The Nosferats or that? Fucking that! Because these guys trust it!"

Leaves rustling and twigs snapping as they walked, the four pressed on, Jack jumping slightly when something appeared in his cone of light. Just a tree. Everything was freaking him out. Even his own breathing started freaking him out as it steadily got heavier the more he dipped toward full-on panic.

Aaron lightly whistled. A tiny sound cue warning the group he was about to speak. Why was this necessary? Because he knew a sudden sound, even if it was just him talking, would startle them.

"The station's just a little ways away now." he said. "You guys still okay?"  
>"Yeah." replied Veronica. "…not trying to sound like a total coward here, but…"<p>

"You're scared?"

Veronica bit her lip. It went without saying and they both knew it. Of course she was scared. Who wouldn't be scared in a situation like this? Aaron grimaced. He wished he could say something to make this whole trip easier for the both of them, but he couldn't. He couldn't tell them the reality of the situation, either. It was very likely they weren't going to make it back to the greenhouse, but he could tell they knew that. He could tell that scared him. But he knew he'd do whatever he could to make sure they stayed alive…unless…

He couldn't believe what he was saying even while he was saying it.

"One more thing, you two. If either one of you gets bitten, kill yourselves."

"What?" said Jack.

"One bite is all a Nosferat needs to change you into one of them, and the transformation happens very quickly. We can't risk all of us getting infected."  
>"Doesn't that sound the least bit harsh to you?"<br>"It does, but do you have a backup plan for that kind of thing?"

Of course not, but could anyone blame him for bringing it up? Anyone would have second thoughts about doing something like that, even if it was to stop something even worse from happening.

From there, Jack kept his mouth shut, though a wave of relief came over him when they finally spotted the decrepit refueling station. Unfortunately, all there was of it were a few pumps and what remained of a downed vessel. Judging from the foliage starting to grow on its hull, it must have been there for quite some time. The whole station itself looked like it hadn't been used in ages.

"Alright." said Aaron. "Let's get these suckers loaded up and get outta here."

They dropped the canisters on the ground, checking each of the pumps until they finally found one that worked and started filling the canisters up one by one. While Jack stood around nervously and June stood guard while still watching him for whatever reason, Veronica sidled up to Aaron as he topped the second canister and started on the third.

"So when can we plan on getting off this planet?" she asked.  
>"Haven't got a clue." he said while keeping his eyes on the gas the whole time. "We've got a radio back at the greenhouse, but we haven't gotten anything out of it yet."<p>

"Great…and I know this is really hypocritical considering what I did back at the greenhouse, but what's June's problem?"  
>"What do you mean?"<br>"I mean she's still staring at my brother like he did something wrong."

Aaron looked over his shoulder and at June. Jack had his back to her, and just as well. He couldn't take that stare anymore. Even if it had no malevolence in it, it was still far too intimidating for June's own good.

"Tell you the truth, I haven't got a clue. She hasn't told me anything about her and she almost never looks me in the eyes. Who knows? Maybe Jack's someone she clicks with."

"Oh…really?"

"Hey, it's my job to read people like that."

"So that's not just some getup? You're actual military?"

"I'm not a frontline guy, but yeah. You're really taking an interest in me right now, aren't you?"

Veronica smiled and shrugged.

"Hey, just trying to get to know you."

Aaron snickered and lightly punched her shoulder, Jack looking over his shoulder at the two of them and grimacing. It wasn't the fact that someone was flirting with his sister (at least he thought that was what this was). He welcomed that. It was more because Aaron made it look easy. Veronica and his parents always told him he was a good-looking guy and that he could easily pick up a girl if he tried. The only problem was that they hadn't counted on him bot having the guts to try.

Those thoughts were tossed out the window the second his eyes roamed over and spotted June, how was still staring at him. At this point, he wasn't even intimidated anymore. Now it was just flat-out annoying him.

"Alright, that's it!" he growled before he turned to her. "You got a problem with me, lady?!"

"Jack!" Veronica said in disgust. "For God's sake, what's wrong with you?!"

"Wrong with me?! What about her?! She's been staring at me for like five fucking minutes without a break!"

Veronica started getting into a ridiculous tirade about how Jack overreacted to everything, but Jack himself didn't pay any attention. Not because he didn't want to hear it. More because he couldn't hear it; his hearing had gone out and everything had slowed down around him. As he wondered to himself what in the world had happened, he heard a cold and slithery voice in his ears. The strangest thing was that it sounded much like Krystal's voice without the accent. But what really confused him was what it said.

"Focus. Be aware of yourself and of everything around you."

"What?"

Then came a strange droning and tingling sensation in the back of his head. This wasn't just any ordinary tingle, though. He had felt this before…on that one day when he saved himself but knew that there was something wrong with him. He heard it…coming through the trees…getting close to Aaron.

Jack didn't know what was going on, but he knew he had to act fast, and he did. One shot zipped to the spot he had pinpointed, his senses returning to normal immediately afterward as his three companions looked at him in panic. Veronica opened her mouth to probably start yelling at him again, but…

"AGH! You little brat!"

The four looked on in surprise as a young and lithe figure dropped from the trees with a furious look in her eyes, clutching at spot on her arm where Jack's bullet had pierced her. Jack himself nearly cracked a smile at actually managing to land a shot on one of these monsters, but then came the revelation that made all four start to huddle together and prepare to open fire.

The Nosferat that had dropped from the tree was just one of perhaps fifteen others, all of whom now revealed themselves whether poking their heads up from the bushes or dropping down from the treetops. All of them glared at their targets with pure malevolent delight, licking their lips with huge unnatural grins.

"Aaaaaah, shit…" Aaron groaned. Even he hadn't counted on there being this many of them.

Out of sheer panic, Jack and Veronica both made the mistake of popping off a couple of shots at the approaching beasts. A great man once said that he had yet to meet someone who could outsmart a bullet. Outsmarting a bullet would mean outrunning it. Impossible? Apparently not if one was a Nosferat. They moved the very second Jack and Veronica completed the trigger pull, strafing to the side and jetting forward in dark blurs. Distorted shrieks and disturbing hisses filled the air as the monsters attacked. Aaron's few warnings and the previous Nosferat attack were all Jack and Veronica needed to know that this was an absolute nightmare. Not only could they not kill them, they could barely see them as they zipped through the lights as simple dark shapes that made them far more frightening than they already were. It was a complete madhouse.

"Don't bother fighting them!" Aaron hollered as he strapped a filled gas container to his back. "They'll tear us all apart! Grab the gas and run for it!"

Veronica and June obeyed, the Nosferats avoiding the latter for whatever reason and going straight for the former. Jack meanwhile tried to show off some small shreds of bravery, shooting at every single one of the monsters he could see in his cone of light.

No amount of bullets stopped them. Slowing them down for a fraction of a second in some lucky moments, certainly, but they otherwise kept gnashing their teeth and hissing. Aaron put up more of a fight, his shotgun sending a female Nosferat skirting backwards a little ways. She lunged at him again with her teeth bared, not counting on Aaron reaching under his jacket and with a flick of his wrist slashed his long knife across her eye. Unsurprisingly, the scar healed in a matter of seconds.

"Gonna have to do better than that!" she cackled in an annoyingly high-pitched voice. "Or are we just too much for your poor old bones?"

"I'm not the one that sounds like Kim Kardashian on helium." Aaron spat. "…I'm twenty-three, by the way."

Veronica was having a difficult enough time trying to fire at her targets while lugging a full gas container on her back without more of them trying to sneak up behind her. One male Nosferat decided to go straight for her neck, and the second Jack saw it, he fired one single shot that got the beast through one side of his head and out the other. The Nosferat's eyes bugged out and he stopped moving, and Jack thought for a moment that he had finally discovered their fatal point, but no. The hole healed in a matter of seconds and the Nosferat turned toward him with a furious glare.

With one finger pointed menacingly at Jack, the Nosferat growled "You're dead, kid," and lunged at him. Jack made a vain attempt at any kind of defense, crying out in pain when the Nosferat's fist connected with his nose. For the next few moments, Jack felt punch after punch slam into him before his opponent sharply kicked him in the chest. When he slid backward, he took a split second to shake off as much of the pain as he could. In that split second, he spotted June, who fought rather brutally as she seized one Nosferat by the neck. She scowled as it gnashed its teeth at her before she threw it to the ground and stomped on its chest again and again, her lips quivering with every strike.

Jack heard his own Nosferat opponent coming at him again and took aim. Big mistake. The Nosferat rushed forward and kicked Jack's hand backward, and by the time Jack realized that barrel was now dangerously close to his ear, it was too late. He pulled the trigger before he had even a millisecond to react, and the explosion of sound as the bullet zipped out was loud enough to nearly shatter his eardrums. That was in fact what he feared the misplaced shot had done for a moment when all he heard for the next few moments was a loud ringing in his ears and nothing else. He fell on his back as everything spun and dizzied him, his Nosferat opponent smiling evilly and taking a dive toward him with his fangs bared.

But it didn't look that way to Jack. Just before the Nosferat had moved, he made out a strange shape in the background that had appeared for only a fraction of a second. It was tall and glaring at him with blood-red eyes, but otherwise hadn't done anything. The second it vanished, everything had slowed down in his mind. Now he could take all the time he needed to react, and what a gift. His vision had changed, as well, everything fading out while he could make out strange shapes within his approaching opponent. He could see the bones as light-blue holograms, the organs and blood as red and orange, but in the Nosferat's shoulders and heart were pockets of green.

Thermal vision. He didn't know why it had kicked in or how he was seeing this, but he thanked the powers that were for that moment when he finally moved. He aimed his gun and popped off three shots, two at each of the shoulders and one at the heart. Once the three bullets had left the barrel, his vision returned to normal and they plowed straight into the Nosferat. He fell flat on his back, screaming in agony and convulsing as a vile black liquid sprayed from his mouth. He lashed about, his body continuing with this series of spasms until he finally stopped moving.

"My God…I…I killed him."

A double-edged sword if there ever was one. He had just killed someone (or something if one wasn't so forgiving of these monsters) and that alone was enough to make him nearly vomit, but on the other hand, he had finally found their weakness. But what in the world had that shape been? It had the same strange presence as the voice. It was intimidating, but why? Where had he heard it before?

It hardly mattered now. It had helped him in perhaps the greatest way possible in that moment.

"Ronnie!" he shouted. "Go for the shoulders!"  
>"What?!"<p>

"Just do it! Then go for the heart!"

Veronica was tempted to just keep firing wherever she could in hopes that the monsters would just stop coming, but the second one Nosferat jumped down and forced a scream out of her, she found herself reflexively obeying her brother. To her surprise and delight, the Nosferat dropped dead.

"Oh my God…Jack, you're a genius! Aaron! June!"

"We saw!" Aaron cheered. "Good goin', Jack! Now let's mow these motherfuckers down!"

Upon seeing one of their brethren drop dead, the remaining Nosferats all grew wary and some of the smaller ones fled. A large male Nosferat hissed and demonstrated phenomenal strength by ripping out the closest gas pump out of the ground, Aaron aiming true before he got the chance to throw it.

"Big news, mac!" the human yelled. "You're fired!"

The pump exploded the very second the shotgun blast hit it, fire consuming the Nosferats standing too close. It certainly didn't finish them off and it was rather disturbing seeing them writhe around in pain, but the four at least knew now that it wasn't hopeless as they unloaded on the determined weak points and watched the monsters drop dead. Gunfire and screams of pain filled the air for minutes on end until the last Nosferat fell and the fire fizzled out, the echoing screams and shots being all that remained of sound in the otherwise silent woods. The group let smiles reach their faces (save for June, of course), Jack in particular getting really enthusiastic and pumping his fist as he took a big jump.

"Yeah! Burn, baby, BURN!" he cheered. "Now we own you!"

"Good work, everyone. Now let's head back to the greenhouse. We'll fill the generator up and then get some shut-eye."

"Wait, that's it?" Jack asked. "We know how to kill them now! Why don't we try and find their base or kill their leader or something?"

He heard a puff of air. A sniff. He looked over his shoulder and saw that June was finally averting her gaze, but he saw what seemed like sadness in her eyes. Why? Why would something like that trigger sadness in her?

He shook it off. She was enough of an enigma without him worrying about whether or not something upset her.

"Lemme tell you, man," Aaron said. "I really wanna do that. I want outta here just as much as you do, but we're not gonna manage it in one night. Trust me; a few hours of sleep will do you a world of good."

Jack shrugged and followed the other three, relieved that they at least now had a fighting chance against these abominations yet still bothered by several other things. What was that thing that had attacked them on the shuttle? What was June's problem with him? And what in the world was that voice? That omnipotent presence that he just couldn't shake off.

It felt familiar. He felt a similar sensation when near his grandmother, but this somehow felt more…sinister. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the shape appear and disappear again, this time managing to make it out better.

Long violet hair…glowing red eyes…and it looked almost exactly like Krystal. He remembered it now. The story his father had told him when he was a small child about a monster that had tried to tear his family apart. A monster that knew nothing of love or friendship or even the simple joys of living.

A monster with a haunting name.

Kursed.

* * *

><p><strong><em>SOUNDTRACK SO FAR<em>**

_Meet Jack McCloud_- "Solitary Shell" by Dream Theater

_When bloodsuckers attack- _"Before I Forget" by Slipknot

_Through the woods- _"Damned" from Call of Duty: Black Ops


	6. 5: The McCloud Family's Values

CHAPTER FIVE

**The McCloud Family's Values**

Once the generator was up and running and the lights were back on, everyone breathed easy. Even Jack, who still had the vague image of the shadow he'd seen before on his mind, was able to sit down and relax. They each dug something out of the food supply whether it be a bottle of water or a large piece of meat that they then cooked and rationed out. For one reason or another, Jack and Veronica found themselves thinking of the trip to Sauria they were supposed to be on. They desperately hoped that someone had realized they were gone and were sending help soon, but for the time being, they didn't mind this situation so much. The greenhouse felt perfectly safe, and Aaron and June were good enough company. They had a means to defend themselves from the horrors outside. That was good enough.

But naturally, nothing could quell the homesickness they both felt, Jack in particular. On this particular night, he couldn't be happier that their refuge had a large window on the ceiling. After getting a bite to eat, he split off to find his own separate section of the greenhouse, settling for a small rolling hill that he settled on top of and stared up at the stars. On nights leading up to a lunar eclipse, one could see a certain constellation in the sky, and this random cluster of stars had far more meaning to Jack than one might think.

Veronica too felt a special attraction to this same random cluster of stars, smiling as Jack split off. She'd normally criticize him for intentionally being antisocial, but for this kind of thing, she was fine with it. She had other things to attend to, anyway, as Aaron plopped himself down beside her with his trademark smile on.

"Comfortable?" he asked.

She nodded as she grew a smile of her own.

"More or less. I certainly feel better than I did when we landed here."

"Good to hear. Can't have the two of you getting all stressed out and panicking on us."

Veronica nodded again, noticing that Aaron had scratched at the back of his neck for a moment and had broken eye contact with her. The neck scratch was something she'd seen from a thousand different people (give or take, of course), and it always meant the same thing.

"Am I making you nervous?"

"Huh? No. Why do you ask?"

"Because you just scratched at the back of your neck. I've seen a ton of people do it and it always means the same thing."

"Well…yeah. I mean, you're Fox McCloud's granddaughter. Lord knows I ain't gonna mess with you."

Veronica snickered.

"Coming from the son of Soren Halen. My dad is a big fan of his, by the way. Any chance he can meet him once we get outta this mess?"

Veronica cursed herself for ruining the mood as Aaron's face almost instantly fell, though only very slightly. He shook if off in a second, but it still left a sizable impression on the young McCloud.

"This seems like the obligatory bonding moment," Aaron finally said. "So let's talk. Tell me a bit about yourself."

"Well, what do you want to know?"

"Gimme a speed round. Just run through whatever pops into your mind.

"Alright, then. I'm sixteen, and so is Jack since the two of us are twins. As you can probably guess, I'm the more extroverted one. I love sports, especially skateboarding and snowboarding. I have my dad's fur and my mother's eyes…there really isn't a whole lot of interesting stuff about me, to be honest with you."

Aaron shrugged.

"I like what I'm hearing. Go on."

"What is this, an interrogation? You gonna chuck me in jail?"

"Is your snarky attitude something else you got from your dad?"

"My mom, actually. She tried to kill him like five times, I should mention. Three times out of her own free will."

We have a word for the few moments of silence as Aaron's eyebrows shot up like rockets. Starts with an a and ends with the work "ward".

"Umm…" he started. "Yeah, uh…thanks. Really needed to know that."

"Okay, to be fair, they worked it out. Obviously, but y'know. Love won out in the end. Like it always does."

"Yeah, I wouldn't count on that."

"What? …oh. Sore spot?"

"No, no. Just sayin'. It doesn't always work out. Would be awesome if it did, but shit happens that we aren't prepared for."

"Like this whole thing we've got going on here."

They shared a laugh, though Aaron did feel a hint of sadness stir up in him. He kept the same smile on for as long as he could, but by now it was almost like it was a pained smile. Like he was forcing it.

"On that note, we oughta get into my backstory so you know what you're dealing with, huh?" he said. "I was born and raised in New York, specifically the Bronx. I was about fifteen or so when we were attacked by that certain East Asian country."

"They're still at it, huh?"

"Yep. They went quiet for a couple decades and then all of a sudden they just started acting like they could do whatever the hell they wanted. Anyway, they dumped this weird experimental gas on the city that pretty much turned everyone it infected into a raging cannibal."

"Zombies?"

"Something like that. I got bitten by one of them and my mom cut off my leg so I wouldn't turn into one of them."

At the mention of amputation, Veronica felt a light urge to throw up, and just to prove to her he wasn't lying, Aaron rolled up his right pant leg. Underneath was a metal structure vaguely resembling a leg, forcing Veronica to feel both impressed and sad. Impressed that the leg worked so well that she wouldn't have even be able to tell he had it if it weren't in plain sight, and sad for a reason she couldn't explain. She guessed it was sympathy.

"And that was about the time that the U.S. declared war on those son of bitches. My dad was in the military and got shipped off to fight them, and my mom and I moved to Corneria about the same time. Dad said he'd fly over to meet us soon, but…he never came back."

"Oh my God…he died?"

"I don't know. The best answer we got was when some official-looking guy from the American embassy came to our house one night and told us that my dad's platoon got ambushed near Pyongyang. When I asked him if there was any proof that my dad was actually dead, he just kinda looked at me like I had a bug on my face."

Veronica raised an eyebrow. An interesting way for someone to react to such a question.

"So did he have any proof?"

"Nope. He just said that they didn't have any idea. That's one thing that'll always peeve me about my home country's government. If they can't tell me straight up whether or not my dad is okay, they can't fuckin' do anything."

"Wow…so you joined the army to remember him by?"

"Half-right. When I was going to high school on Corneria, I managed to get on the football team and ended up being the star player. I was offered a full scholarship, and I took it for the first two years of college, but I dropped out when I figured it wasn't what I'd want to do for the rest of my life."

"Why in the world not?! You were a star player!"

"Sure, but just 'cause you're hung like a horse doesn't mean you gotta do porn, right?"

"…ew."

"Sorry. I was more into boxing, anyway. Mackenzie Schroeder was always the best in my eyes."

"You mean Little Mac? Yeah. He was quite something. So what did you quit for? You could've gone pro and…well, not ended up stuck here!"

"Sorry. I wouldn't want to grow up to be some kind of wife-beating steroid-shooting dipshit."

"Ooooooh!"

"Don't 'ooooooh' me! I read the newspaper! I know this shit happens all the time!"

They shared another laugh, relishing in just being in each other's presence. You're awesome, they both thought as they listened to the sound of each other's voices. Veronica let a sudden urge take her over and scooted closer to Aaron, enough that he could feel her bushy tail flicking against him as she wagged it back and forth.

"Can I…" she started. "Y'know…"

"What?"

"Touch your leg?"

"Uhh…you're kinda already touching it."

"I mean your fake one."

"Hey, it has feelings, too."

Another shared laugh, but Aaron obeyed, Veronica keeping her tail flat as she reached out and slid her fingers along the glossy surface of his prosthetic leg. It felt so odd, but so interesting at the same time. She admired its various intricacies, felt at the joints, and stroked the metal shaft that served as a replacement for Aaron's shin.

"Wow. This is really something." she finally said.

"Yep. Works like a charm."

"So how's your experience been in the army?"

"A mixed bag, really. My mom thought I was out of my mind, and yeah. Maybe I was. I was in boot camp for like a year and there was this one asshole drill sergeant that really tore into me because I was a human."

"Yeesh. One of those guys, huh? How'd you deal with it?"

"I put up with it for a few months and then just snapped when he hit me a couple of times. I beat him so bad that the black eyes I gave him damn near blinded him."

"Oh, wow…so what happened? You obviously didn't get discharged."

"No, but he sure as hell wanted to discharge me. I mean, shit, he wanted me behind bars for doing that to him. Funny thing, though. General Grey ended up discharging him after he saw what happened on a security feed. He actually congratulated me for sticking up for myself."

Veronica smirked and rolled her eyes. Bill Grey was that kind of guy.

"So I stuck through the rest of the training and ended up on the Research and Reconnaissance Squadron. My teammates are a real fun bunch."

"Your teammates?"

"Yeah. We got shipped over here to basically check the planet for life, and…well, we found it."

"That's something that's really bugging me, though. Why is the military only looking into this planet now?"

"There actually is a reasonable explanation for it. They thought this planet was one of Venom's moons, but we figured out that it was rotating around Lylat. The reason no one ever sees it is because that haze around Venom typically blocks it for most of its orbit so you can only see it from Lylat's outer planets like Sauria or Kew."

"So it's kinda like how Neptune and Pluto switch places every five hundred years or whatever?"

"Something like that. We kinda figured there had to be something wrong here if the planet was this close to Venom, but...yeah. None of us were prepared for this. I got separated from my team when the Nosferats attacked us and I ended up running into June a little while later. We've been camping out here since then."

Aaron let out a deep sigh that Veronica fully empathized with. He was going through so much that it made her and Jack's problems seem like stuff out of grade school. His father was missing, his team was missing, he'd been abused for a good chunk of his military career, and who did he have for company? Her. Boring, uninteresting Veronica McCloud who indeed was the adventurous type but had done nothing substantial with her life so far.

Then he turned to her and shot her that award-winning smile that she couldn't get enough of.

"Then two furry angels dropped outta the sky and gave me and June a little bit of hope."

Veronica smiled and lightly punched Aaron's arm.

"Don't try to get all mushy with me, buster."

"Don't worry. I'm not."

"I really hope you find your team in one piece, though. I'll help you as much as I can. Jack, too."

"Thanks."

Speaking of Jack, he'd just about dozed off when he heard a soft splash a light distance away from him. He didn't want to take his eyes off of the constellation above him, but that was how he functioned. He had to be certain of everything. He didn't want to risk seeing if a Nosferat had broken in while none of them were looking. He pushed himself to his feet, kicking aside his deposited hat and jacket and slowly proceeding across the soft grass as the noise came again.

He followed the sound and found that he had laying a little ways away from the lake, and just as he set his eyes on it, someone reared their naked and dripping body out of it. It wasn't just the fact that this someone was naked…okay, it was, but what really got him was that it was…

"June?!"

At the mention of her name, June spun around to face him, the angry look that he was used to being replaced with a look of shock. Once she was aware of who it was, the look shifted back to a neutral state, seemingly ignoring the fact that she wasn't wearing anything and he could see her in this vulnerable state.

"Oh, God…" Jack stammered. "I…I, uh…hi."

Then came the biggest surprise: she finally smiled at him. She was amused by his shyness, and by some twisted act of fate, she wavered her hand. Asking him to come closer. More surprising was that he obeyed. He wasn't sure why. Maybe he was enticed by her body or the fact that she wasn't looking at him like a serial killer anymore.

He kept stepping forward until he reached the edge of the pool, then stopped and sat down, letting his legs dip into the water. She swam up to him almost instantly and laid her arms on his thighs, forcing him to flinch at her touch for a brief moment.

"You smell really good."

She spoke quietly, but audibly enough that Jack could hear the tone in her voice. Her voice was deep and very seductive-sounding as he had expected, and had an Estuary accent attached to it much like the one he heard from Krystal, but what got to him was how soothing it was. It wasn't something he could describe perfectly, but what he could say was that it could lull him to sleep faster than a warm glass of milk ever could…but what was this about him smelling good?

He lifted his arm and smelled his armpit. It smelled…well, like an armpit. He didn't put on cologne or anything. Deodorant in the morning, sure, but let's not forget that he was on an uncharted planet with no way to cleanse himself other than getting in the pool with her, and he didn't dare to even think twice about that.

"Thanks…I guess."

"Is my nudity distracting you?"

He was tempted to make a snarky remark, but his conscience (and her face) convinced him otherwise.

"A little."

"You could take your clothes off and come join me, you know."

"No thank you!"

She laughed. A slightly creepy laugh that felt attractive to him at the same time. It just now occurred to him that he had no idea how old she was. She looked about eighteen or so (despite being a lot taller than any eighteen-year old girl he had ever met), but the mannerism in which she spoke as well as the voice itself gave the implication that she was far older than that, at least in her mid-twenties.

"Y'know, I think this is illegal." Jack suddenly sputtered.

"Why do you think that?"

"I'm only sixteen! Isn't this pedophilia or something?!"

"Jumping to conclusions. Nice. I'm only eighteen, by the way."

"…stupid son of a…goddammit."

"I don't know if anyone's told you this, but you're really cute when you're nervous."

Nevertheless, she got out of the water. She let him get a good look at her naked flank (though he had covered his eyes in a nanosecond) before donning a set of underwear and sitting down next to him, staring into his eyes so deeply it once again felt like she was staring straight into his soul. Then he arrived at the inevitable.

"Listen, about what I said to you back there, I…"

"Don't worry about it. I just kind of felt interested in you, and I guess my way of expressing that was weird. I'm sorry."

"That's…that's okay."

"So what were you doing here just now?"

"Star-gazing."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"…you'll think it's stupid."

"Honey, you've already done enough stupid things that I thought were adorable. Your reason for staring up at the sky isn't going to phase me at all."

"…okay. Come over here."

He stood up and walked back to the spot where he had been laying down, proceeding to do so again with June lying next to him. She was close enough to feel her pressed against him and had every thought to try and slip away from her, but then he remembered why he was here.

"You see that?" he asked, pointing up at the constellation he had been staring at.

"Those stars? What about them?"

"My grandmother and my dad call that constellation Concordia."

"What's that mean?"

"Union. There's one star up there for each member of my family."

"Your family…"

"Three great clans united as one…you okay?"

June's seductive and bubbly expression had vanished at the mention of the word "family". Jack had guessed he had hit a sore spot, but he had no idea how. Nevertheless, his gothic companion shook it off.

"Never mind. So who's up there?"

Jack nodded and started to point out each one.

"Well, those two right there are me and Ronnie. Underneath them are Marcus James McCloud and Coyote Lorraine O'Donnell, our mom and dad."

"O'Donnell? You're Wolf O'Donnell's grandson?"

Jack smirked. He knew his maternal grandfather was notorious for his work, but it literally seemed like everyone knew his name. A lot of people thought that Wolf was one of the scariest men they had ever met, but Jack knew better. Wolf was a very kind and loving man to his family despite having a very intimidating appearance. He had his eye gouged out when he was twenty and bounced back from that without any effort. That alone told him how tough he was.

"Yeah. He's a great guy. He and his wife Lori Grey are part of the first clan."

"And there's another star near Coyote. Her sibling?"

"Yeah. My uncle Scott. He's in university on Aquas right now."

"What's he trying to be?"

"A hair stylist…really.

"I didn't say anything."

"No, but you were thinking 'prissy', right?"

"A little bit. And those two before Wolf?"

"His parents. Rodrick and Nina. They were both murdered when he was only eleven."

"Oh, my…is that why Wolf is so brooding?"

"I'd call it intimidating. He had his eye gouged out and he's basically been to Hell and back, but he came out a good man, so I guess it all worked out.

"So where's Fox McCloud in all of this?"

"Right there, next to Krystal. Behind him are James McCloud and Vixy Reinard."

Thinking about his grandfather and great-grandfather and all their heroic accomplishes only served to make Jack feel even more inferior. True, they were great men and he loved hearing about them, but what he didn't love was the bad taste in his mouth when he felt as though he had to live up to them at all costs.

"I hear that Krystal is one of the prettiest women in all of Lylat." June suddenly asked.

"Yeah, she is."

"How old is she now?"

"Hoo, boy, she's like sixty-seven, I think. She's still gorgeous, though. Doesn't look a day over twenty. I think it's because Cerinians can live for something like two hundred years if they're healthy enough."

"So Cornerian doctors are taking good care of her?"

"Yep. She exercises every morning, too."

"Nice. So there's her brother or sister over there?"

"Yep. Sabre. He died a long time ago, but he got married to a woman named Venus and had my aunt Aileen. Aileen got married to Hephaestus, and they gave birth to Siri."

"And Sabre and Krystal's parents?"

"Shadow and Marcus. My dad was named after him."

June smiled and stared at the constellation a little longer, a hint of remorse in her eyes.

"Must be nice to know so much about your family."

"It is. Why?"

"Three guesses as to why anyone would ask something like that."

"Wait…you're an orphan?"

"No. I just don't know much about my family, that's all."

"Okay…well, do you remember your mother and father?"

June went unnervingly silent again, now cluing Jack into the fact that there was something very odd about her, and it wasn't that he never heard her speak until now or that she dressed like she worked in a dominatrix dungeon. Why did she get so socially awkward at the mere mention of family?

"Maybe it's better off that I don't know, anyway."

"No way. You deserve to know every little bit about your family."

"Haven't your own parents hid anything from you?"

"…yeah. You see that space between Krystal and Sabre on the constellation? There used to be a star there. That was their sister, but this sister wasn't born like other people. For some reason, she and Krystal were born with their souls locked into the same body. A variant on Siamese twins, if you will."

"Gross."

Jack smirked. He didn't expect Aaron to have much of a sense of humour in the situation they were in, let alone June. Thank God. Something like that could at least hold off going completely insane.

"It sounds grosser than it really is…but from what I gather, she should have been aborted. People thought she was a freak all because she didn't have her own body and had to leech off of Krystal to survive."

"What was her name?"

"She didn't really have a name, but because of all the things she did, everyone called her Kursed."

"So what exactly did she do?"

"She tried to eat my dad's soul so she could gain some sort of mystical power and commit mass genocide."

"Why?"

"Because everyone thought she was a freak, I guess. It was all for revenge. Everyone scorned her and she saw that as the only option. Seems a little excessive, yeah, but it made sense in her twisted mind…thank God my dad killed her. There just didn't seem to be any redeeming factor to her whatsoever."

"How do you know?"

Jack stopped talking upon noticing that June's tone had shifted. She sounded offended, and as he turned to look, he instantly regretted even bothering to talk to her. That evil predator look had come back, but now it was even worse. Her eyebrows were arched downward and she was very near to flaring her nostrils.

"You never even knew her. Besides, she's your family, right? Aren't you supposed to love your family no matter what? And aren't they supposed to love you in return?! Is that too much to ask?!"

"Jesus Christ, what's your problem?!"

"Me? Oh, nothing. I just misjudged a little twerp is all. You must really not care about your family at all if you can mouth off about a member of it that easily."

"It's just from what my dad told me!"

"And you just believe everything you hear, is that it?! Fuck you!"

"Goddamn, fine. Be like that. So much for a wholesome bonding moment with a fellow survivor. I mean, shit…"

Jack got up and walked away with a scowl burned onto his face for several minutes while June watched him with her own breed of anger. For Jack, it was as simple as her being rude. For June, it was more a matter of her taking what he said out of context. She knew that she had read far too deep into it and let it hurt her more than it should have, but what was she supposed to do about it? She couldn't tell him. He was the kind of guy that would go running straight to his parents (or his much braver sister in this case) the second he heard something even remotely out of the ordinary.

"…no. I can't think like that. He's a good kid…he just needs one or two pushes out the door, that's all."

Jack meanwhile shook the thoughts of their encounter out as he approached Veronica and Aaron sitting peacefully in the clearing.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Uh, let's see..." said Aaron, stroking his chin and looking up through the ceiling. "The sky, for one. That constellation Ronnie told me you really like staring at."

Jack shot Veronica a look of venom, causing her to smirk and shrug mischievously.

"Hey, he wanted to know about you and I felt obliged to tell him." she said.

"Yeah, but it's me. Shouldn't I have a say in it?" Jack asked.

"Nope."

She burst out laughing and he rolled his eyes before sitting down next to them.

"What was that yell we just heard?" Aaron asked.

"It was June. She's really touchy."

Veronica stopped laughing and planted her hands on her hips.

"Jack, what did you do now?"

"Nothing. She asked me about our family and when I mentioned how Kursed was better off dead, she started flipping out at me."

"Jack. We. Are. Not. Supposed. To. Talk. About. Her."

"Yeah. Well. I. Did. Sue. Me. What? Is she gonna come back from the dead and eat my soul?"

Jack got no answer other than venomous glare, and Veronica got no answer other than another roll of the eyes.

"Forget this. I'm going to sleep."

He found a comfortable spot on the grass and got down on his back, staring up at Concordia before it finally helped him drift into a peaceful sleep. Aaron and Veronica looked at each other with distress in their expressions, but neither one said a word. They knew they'd have to get as much sleep as they possibly could before the Nosferats began their hunt again, but neither of them wanted to sleep after what they had heard. They didn't need a rift in their own group.

At last, Veronica spoke.

"Just let him sleep it off. I'm sure they'll start liking each other again after a good rest."

"Optimism." Aaron said with a smile. "You're doing it right."

They wished each other a good night's sleep before they drifted off, as well. All of them slept heavily, with Jack being the heaviest of all. Because of this, however, he was completely unaware of June steadily crawling toward him on all fours…licking her lips…her eyes glowing and staring at him hungrily.

"I'm sorry, Jack." she whispered. "But I can't survive on the crap Aaron keeps feeding me…and you smell so good."

She leaned down and smelled his fur again, letting out a heavy sigh. The scent was too alluring for her too resist. She needed it…and she needed it now. If anyone was going to give it to her, it may as well have been him.

"Oh, God, am I really doing this…"

She had no choice. She sucked in a breath and took a big nervous gulp, then leaned down again but this time aiming for his neck, gently craning it at just the right angle. She ran her fingers through his hair, freezing for a moment when he let out a soft moan but otherwise remained silent and motionless. As soon as she came close enough, she opened her mouth…

…and let out a soft hiss as she bared her sharp teeth.

* * *

><p><em><strong>*zooms in* WHAT A TWIST! ...not really. Honestly, hands up: how many people saw that coming?<strong>_

_**Anyhow, you folks have a good Halloween? Choked down loads of chocolate? Chocolate?! CHOCOLATE?! CHOOOOOCOLAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!**_

_**...can't believe I did that again.**_

**_SOUNDTRACK SO FAR_**

_Meet Jack McCloud_- "Solitary Shell" by Dream Theater

_When bloodsuckers attack- _"Before I Forget" by Slipknot

_Through the woods- _"Damned" from Call of Duty: Black Ops

_A few moments of bonding-_ "Under the Milky Way" by the Church


	7. 6: Raymond

CHAPTER SIX

**Raymond**

"Get out of the way, Ronnie. I have to do it."

"Are you crazy?! You think I'm just gonna stand aside and let you…"

"He's been bitten, Ronnie! The second he wakes up, he'll tear us all limb from limb! Look, I know this probably the most heart-wrenching thing ever for you, and if I didn't have to do it, I wouldn't…"

Jack groaned in frustration and shook himself awake with half a mind to tell Aaron and Veronica to cut it out, only to find himself staring down the barrel of Aaron's gun.

"JESUS CHRIST!" he screamed in an admittedly high-pitched voice as he skittered backward.

"Fuck!" Aaron yelled, now taking careful and sudden aim at the young McCloud.

With the sheer level of panic running through everyone, it was a wonder Aaron hadn't blasted Jack down right there. The split second delay was all June needed to kick the gun out of Aaron's hand and heave Jack to his feet.

"June, what are you…" Aaron started.

"Look." she said, jabbing a finger into Jack's neck. "Remember the other ones you saw with bite wounds? How they all had those black veins circling around them? Also notice how he's not gnashing his teeth at us like maniac."

"What…ooooooh, yeah…ah, fuck. Jack, I'm so sorry."

"Bloody hell, it pays to observe, you know…"

Jack wriggled his way out of June's grasp, relieved that he at least wasn't going to get gunned down, but there still lay the issue of why Aaron had the intention of killing him in the first place.

"Okay, back up! What the hell's going on?!" he sputtered.

"You got bitten last night." said Veronica. "I was practically pissing myself when I saw it."

"Wait, what?"

Jack felt around at his neck until he located the four sizable bumps. Whatever had gotten to him had pierced his skin, but hadn't drawn any blood, or at least none that had leaked out aside from whatever was drawn from him.

"It looks like a Nosferat bite," said Aaron as he stepped forward to further inspect it. "But if it was, you'd be fully infected by now."

"So…I'm okay?"

"Looks like it. Gotta say, though. You really scream like a girl, dude."

"Oh, shut up! You nearly shot me right in the fuckin' face!"

"Hey, I said I was sorry. Still, though. Doesn't make a whole lotta sense to me. I mean, that looks almost like any other Nosferat bite I've seen, but…hm."

"Hm? What's 'hm' mean?"

Aaron didn't answer as he racked his brain for any possible solution. Jack rolled his eyes which conveniently happened to land on June, partly because he was surprised she had actually talked to someone other than him but also for another more suspicious reason. Now she was avoiding his gaze at all costs, but otherwise kept the familiar nonchalant expression he was used to seeing by now.

"Pity. I would've thought we got past that after that talking-to last night."

He shook it off. That falling-out they had probably didn't help matters much. That, and she was still a gothic Amazon that radiated pure intimidation. Oh, well. There were other things to worry about.

"So what are we up to today?" he asked. "Hunting? Finding a way outta here? Please say 'finding a way outta here'."

"To answer your question," Aaron started. "Specifically the getting out of here bit, we did manage to find a settlement a few days back. And by that, I mean we saw it from a distance. We never managed to go down there and check it out."

"So there's people living here aside from the Nosferats?" asked Veronica.

"I wouldn't count on it anymore. If there was anyone living there, either they bailed out or the Nosferats got 'em."

A disturbing thought, made even more so when the nearby radio started to crackle. The look that came over Aaron and June was that of shock and delight.

"No way…" Aaron said to himself.

"What?" asked Veronica.

"That radio's been silent for the entire time I've been here! Someone's trying to contact us!"

The possibilities of what that could mean were enough to get the McCloud twins to rush over to the radio alongside Aaron. They were surprised that a radio this old worked (let alone existed in this day and age), but waited in anxiousness as Aaron tuned it to the appropriate channel. Finally, a voice came through. While they were happy to hear someone speaking to them that by the sound of it certainly wasn't a Nosferat, they were disappointed with his tone. It wasn't someone searching for them to try and help. It was someone who needed help.

"Hello?! Hello?! Can anybody hear me?!" said a male voice in a panicked tone. "Oh, God, this is bad…"

"Calm down." said Aaron sternly. "Who am I speaking to?"

"My name is Raymond! My village got attacked by the Nosferats but I managed to escape!"

"Another survivor, huh? Alright! Just tell me where you are and we'll be on our..."

He trailed off when June swatted his hand away from the receiver. Jack didn't dare to say anything as he examined the disapproving scowl on her face lest she start shouting at him again. Aaron was just as nervous. More confused than nervous, of course, but nervous nonetheless.

"June, what're you doing?"

June merely looked at the radio and slowly shook her head. Aaron sighed.

"That's not an answer. What's going on?"

"…how do you know that this Raymond guy isn't trying to lure us into a trap?"

"What gives you that idea?"

"Call it a gut feeling. Call me paranoid for all I care. I'm just not sure about this."

"Fair enough, but what if it really is a survivor looking for some help?"

"What if it's a Nosferat trying to trick us into thinking he's a survivor? Besides, even if it is a survivor, who's to say he won't just get caught by the time we make it to him?"

"Then that's what'll happen. Thanks to our silver-furred friend over there, the Nosferats ain't much of a threat anymore."

June became downcast, averting her gaze and biting her lip as she crossed her arms.

"Yeah, you'd think that…" she muttered.

"What's that?"

"Never mind. Go ahead, then. You really are too chivalrous for your own good, Aaron…"

"I can live with that if it means I can save an innocent life."

June stood aside and let Aaron get back to the radio. He twisted the knobs a little bit to get the sound back through and spoke. June had the thought of pulling him away again, but she restrained herself despite how painful it was.

"Raymond! You still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here!"

"Okay. Can you tell me where you are right now? Is there any kind of landmark you can point out?"

"Umm…ah, c'mon, there's gotta be something here…yeah! I'm at some kind of refueling station."

"Perfect. We know the way there. Now listen carefully. We're coming to pick you up, but I need you to lay low until we get there. Can you do that for me?"

"Okay, but please hurry! I don't know how much longer I can evade capture!"

"On the way."

The channel disconnected and Aaron quickly rushed to the weapon cache, Veronica following suit while Jack stayed behind to shoot June a suspicious glance. She avoided his gaze for a few moments, but as he kept staring at her, she finally sighed and turned to him.

"What?" she said somewhat harshly.

"What's going on?"

"We're off to rescue some hapless idiot, I guess."

"Not that. Why did you freak out about it?"

"You call being wary freaking out?"

"Alright, alright. Jesus, I can't talk to you about anything…"

Jack stormed after Veronica and Aaron, leaving June to take on another depressed expression while sluggishly following behind. Was it really so hard for them to just listen to her? She was giving them a fair warning and yet all three of them wanted to go anyway?

"I can't believe he'd stoop so low…"

* * *

><p>The group moved just as quietly as they had before, though kept their pace at a constant jog. Even if they knew the Nosferats' weakness now, that didn't make them any less of a threat, and if this Raymond guy was smart, he'd do what Aaron said and stayed hidden.<p>

There came somewhat of a surprise, though; despite there being a fresh target out in the woods who was completely lost and lacking any sense of direction in this place, they found no trace of the Nosferats. NO footprints, no scratches on trees, no blood. No sounds, either. Just as quiet as usual, but it was somewhat different. Before, they'd felt the overwhelming presence of the Nosferats even though they couldn't see them. Now, they didn't feel any of the anxiousness of before, and while that may have seemed good on the face of it, it still made them uneasy.

And by them, I mean Jack. Aaron and Veronica were far too eager to rescue Raymond to really pay attention while Jack couldn't help but feel that something was amiss.

Or maybe he was just being the paranoid neurotic that he was. Take your pick.

His ears pricked up and he came to a stop. Someone had called his name, and judging from how they were still walking, it obviously hadn't been any of his three companions. None of them noticed him come to a stop since they were already a fair distance ahead of him. He worried he'd lose them, but then again, he had a good memory. He knew where they were headed and knew which way to go. He had time to investigate.

"Who's there?" he called, readying his handgun just to be safe.

"Here…here…"

He turned toward the source of the light whisper that he could just barely hear and found himself staring down a sizable tunnel, a small cobweb dangling in the corner of its entrance and the roots of the trees over it hanging from its ceiling like grabbing tendrils. Jack wondered what possessed him to wander into it, but it hardly mattered to him as he proceeded into the darkness, his gun's flashlight just barely lighting the way. Every few seconds, he'd hear another sound that made him flinch and turn his gun, and one sound came so close that he was a millisecond away from firing.

"Oh, God, what the hell have I gotten myself into now…" he muttered to himself.

The voice came again, beckoning him further and further. He knew this voice, but it wasn't one he wanted to hear. It had been the same voice he'd heard the previous day, and now that he had recognized it, he began to feel the familiar chills running up his spine.

And yet he kept walking…walking…and walking…

He tripped over a root, tumbling head over heels as the tunnel suddenly slanted heavily downward. He struck his head, his chest, his stomach, and very nearly his groin over and over again until finally coming to a rest on his side at the bottom of the drop. He groaned to himself and clutched at his now bloody knee before he pulled himself to his feet, smacking the back of his head against the low stone ceiling. He sucked in a pain breath as he grasped at the smarting spot, but he had far worse things to worry about.

"Here…here…"

"Dammit, who's there?!" he shouted.

He got an answer, but not one he wanted. The room illuminated just enough that Jack could look at the ground he stood on, and he immediately wished he hadn't. Rotting bodies were strewn about with even their bones looking decayed and fragile, and he only realized now that there was a heart sitting by his foot that he had mistakenly stepped on. He let out a tiny yelp and kicked it away into the corner, and in the darkness of that corner, he saw…it.

Her.

He lifted his gun and opened fire without a second thought, but without any corporeal form, the shadow was utterly unaffected by the small stream of bullets. It strafed all about, avoiding the fire until it was right in front of Jack, and the second he opened his mouth to scream, the shadow slammed into him. His voice drowned out, his body went numb, and he went careening into the nearby wall. When he hit the ground, he felt like there was something crawling underneath his skin for a brief moment before it suddenly stopped and he lay there in motionless shock.

"Wha…what just…what the f…" he babbled uselessly.

"Jack?!"

The sound of Veronica's voice outside of the tunnel was all it took for Jack to get to his feet and dash out of it. That, and the thoughts of the shadow still lingering in his mind. What had it done to him? Where had it gone?

Where had SHE gone?

"Oh, thank God…" Veronica muttered when she finally saw Jack appear from the mouth of the tunnel. "Where the hell did you go?!"

"S-sorry, I just…"

He had to bite his tongue to stop himself from mentioning Kursed, fearing that would only make her even more frustrated with him.

"You just what?" she asked."

"I…thought I saw something."

"Never mind. We're almost there. Don't lag behind!"

"Yeah…yeah, yeah. Right behind you."

They broke back into a run, a strange itching feeling flaring up in the back of Jack's head as though something was clawing at his brain. He feared what the shadow had possibly done to him, but he pressed on. He had other things to worry about as Aaron and June turned around from where they were waiting and spotted him.

"Oh, man, there you are, Jack!" he breathed. "Where'd you go?"

"Nowhere. I'm fine." Jack said, his tone giving away a sign of distress with Aaron being quick to call him on it.

"You don't sound fine. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Are we there yet?"

"Sheesh, way to dodge the bullet, bro. But yeah. We're almost there."

"Good."

They continued, Jack noticing that he and June were now side-by-side. It hadn't just been chance. She had actively sidled up to him.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm fine." he replied. "Just got a little sidetracked."

"What happened to your eyes?"

"What do you mean?"

"They're glowing a little bit."

There was no way he could see it, but she was right. They retained the same colour, but with a small bit of light emanating from them. He began to fear the worst from the shadow's attack and instinctively looked at his hand. There was no change to it or the rest of his body. What had the shadow done to him? Or was June just screwing with him? It wouldn't be that surprising.

"What?" he asked.

"What?" she said.

"What did you say?"

She raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

"I didn't say anything. Maybe you're hearing things."

God, he hoped not.

A cry of panic echoing from somewhere in the forest startled the four just enough that they broke into a sprint and finally slid to a stop. They had reached the refueling station, but so had something else by the looks of it. They saw the leg of someone who they assumed was Raymond disappear into the canopy above, an evasive maneuver to keep himself away from…well, why don't we ask Veronica?

"Oh, great! That's just what we need! A big-ass snake!"

Said "big-ass snake" with its charcoal-colored scales and its red eyes and horn nose turned its head away from its intended prey and roared at the nearby four before slithering at them at high speed. With a loud "HEADS UP!" from Aaron, they strafed out of the way, Jack ending up on the receiving end of the massive creature's tail as it whipped about. All the wind went flying out of him as he skittered a few feet away on his back, the snake rearing up and opening its mouth as it started to retch.

"Watch it, Jack!" Aaron shouted. "It spits acid!"

It did indeed spit acid. So quickly that Jack had just barely evaded it, but the splash that resulted still resulted in a light burn on his skin. A scream escaped his throat. It was perhaps the worst burn he'd suffered in his life, and it had only just barely singed him. He clutched at the wound as the agony surprisingly spread all across his body, and though not as severe as the initial burn, he still lacked the will to move against the pain. His gun hand fixated toward the snake gave him hope a he fired off several rounds, as did Aaron and Veronica.

Alas, the bullets did little more than provoke the beast as it came barreling toward them yet again, specifically targeting Jack. As the snake opened its mouth to spit once again, however, it began to gag and choke. In the split second it took for it to stop and prepare its attack, June had leapt onto its back, sliding downward before locking her hand onto a small dent in its hide. Rearing her hand back for a brief moment and flexing her fingers, she plunged her hand into the dent. The snake screamed and bucked all about as blood poured from the wound, but June kept on digging.

Her three companions watched, with Aaron being moderately impressed, Veronica being utterly disgusted, and Jack being absolutely horrified. Not so much by the violent act itself, but more by June's facial expression. Her lips curled into a sneer as the snake started to shriek before she broke into a full-on maniacal grin as she ripped deeper and deeper into its body. Finally, the blood began to spurt all over her as her hands emerged from under its hide, bringing with them a pulsating mass of tissue dripping with blood. The snake collapsed, the same red spew leaking from its mouth as it shuddered and finally died.

As gruesome as it was to watch June rip the still-beating heart from the monster's chest, she didn't necessarily make thing better when she casually leaped back onto the ground and tossed the heart into the bushes. She then stared at her stained fur for a moment before licking some of the moist blood from her hand. Without any change in her expression, she wiped it off on her attire before turning to her comrades and seeing their varying visages.

"What?" she asked.

"Umm…what was wrong with just shooting it?" Aaron asked.

No response but a blank stare, shifting into a minor look of concern when she looked over at Jack, who seemed to be trying his best not to throw up.

"Oh, man, I think I'm gonna be sick…" he groaned as he cupped his hand to his mouth.

"Hey, at least we killed it. Rather effectively, I might add." said Veronica.

"I don't care how effective that was! That was fucking disgusting!"

And then he looked up at June and said exactly what she feared he would say.

"Seriously! Why the hell would you do that?! What's wrong with you?!"

"JACK!" Veronica half-shouted.

It was too late. June let the hurtful words sink in and turned away from Jack with a somber expression on her face. Jack instantly regretted saying such a thing, but he still felt it was well-deserved what with the act having been so revolting. Of all the way she could have killed that thing, why in the world had she ripped its heart out instead of doing what Aaron had suggested and just shoot it?

"What even was that thing?" he asked aloud.

"A Breather." said Aaron. "Yeah, more uninspired names for ya. They're pretty much just steeds for the Nosferats or something like that. The Nosferats make their eggs in some kind of breeding chamber and when they hatch, they've gotta eat. Guess how their new masters oblige with that."

"Great. Bloodthirsty types of Pokémon, by the sound of it."

"Funnily enough, you know what the really freaky thing about them is? They evolve. REALLY fast, too."

"And there's…how many?"

"I'd say anywhere between a couple dozen to something like five hundred."

"Wonderful. Just what we need."

"It's not too bad. We at least know how to kill them."

Without another word to Jack, Aaron turned to the trees above and cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Yo! Raymond! You out there?!"

There was a small rustle of leaves, the gentle tapping of rubber soles against bark, and finally a figure dropped down from the trees.

"Phew." he said. "Perfect timing. Well, not quite, but it could have been worse."

"Oh, my…" said Veronica, smiling sheepishly a faint hint of red forming under her fur.

Perhaps it was warranted. Raymond was a fair bit taller than Jack and Aaron not counting his pricked ears, and though such a thing was subjective, it was rather fair to say that one could call him far more attractive than them. Even though his face was very handsomely chiseled, he looked about the same age as Aaron. He was fairly muscular, with his combination of a flowing leather jacket and a muscle shirt emphasizing it. His fur was a surprisingly similar hue to June's, though somewhat lighter, and he even had the same violet eyes.

"Good to see you're okay." said Aaron, stepping forward with his hand outstretched. "Aaron Halen at your service."

Raymond nodded and shook Aaron's hand before he shot a smirk over at Jack.

"Nice job back there." he said almost tauntingly. "You almost had it."

"Oh, and you could have done any better?" Jack spat. "Who was the one calling for help agai-OW! Dammit, Ron!"

He thought he'd gotten used to Veronica hitting him whenever he was rude to someone, but she'd chosen this time to hit him a little extra hard. The second he figured out what the extra power was for, he condemned her as a total suck-up in his mind, though he could have admittedly called her something far worse. He wasn't above that, especially when it came to this guy.

"Sorry." she said to Raymond, stammering slightly and unable to keep the giddy smile off her face. "He doesn't have a lot of friends, and…yeah, you can kinda see why."

Raymond chuckled to himself and patted Veronica's shoulder, surprising Jack when she didn't swoon and faint right there judging from how much she flinched.

"Not to worry. I'm sure we'll get to know each other way better before long. What's your name?"

"M-me? Oh, um…Veronica McCloud. Nice to meet you."

"Veronica…a gorgeous name if I ever heard one."

Jack blew a disapproving puff of air out of his mouth, immediately catching Aaron's attention while Veronica and Raymond engaged in a casual conversation.

"What's up?" Aaron asked him.

"I dunno…call it an older sibling's protective instinct."

"Ah. Not a fan of letting some guy make off with your sister."

"Not really. This is kinda a special case. Hell, if she hooked up with you, I'd have no problem with it. I'd encourage it, even."

"Oh. Okay. Not that I would, but…"

"Dude, come on, I heard you two talking last night."

"Alright, ya got me. She's a real charmer, but I'm fine with just being friends. So it's just Raymond you're not a fan of?"

"Yeah. Not just because of that crack he made. It's kinda like…well, you ever met a guy you just didn't like, and it's not really for any good reason? You just don't? He just kinda comes across as…"

"A douche?"

"Yeah."

Then Jack noticed June staring at Raymond, his disgust starting to well up when he thought she was giving him that familiar "intrigued" stare. However, he looked closer and saw something else. A combination of anger, disgust, and fear. A general look of disdain. Something about this guy set her off, but it wasn't his sour personality. When Raymond himself looked over at her, he grew the same expression, though not after growing a look of total shock.

After she'd looked into his eyes for a good five seconds, June turned away. It stirred up a strange satisfaction in her to see him so stunned, but she otherwise said nothing. She didn't need to do anything about him for now, but if he tried anything funny…

"So…" Raymond started, finally taking his eyes off of June. "You guys know the way out of here? An airport or anything?"

"That's what we're hoping to find." said Aaron, keeping wary of Raymond after having noticed the way June had looked at him. "Haven't had any luck so far, but as long as we're out here, it wouldn't hurt t go check the settlement."

"Yeah, I think I passed that on my way here. Not much of a point in going, though. There's no one there."

"Well, not much else we can do. Care to come along with us, Ray?"

Raymond shrugged, disgusting Jack and June while filling Veronica with glee.

"I could use some company. Wouldn't wanna stay out here in case another one of those things shows up. Do I get a gun?"

"Sorry, this is all we've got on us right now." said Aaron. "Okay, people. Let's get moving."

Aaron led the way while June and Jack took up the rear and kept their eyes on Raymond the entire time, the latter disgusted when Raymond kept shooting Veronica seductive glances. Great. They hadn't known each other for five minutes and Jack already wanted to punch the guy right in the face.

"Jack?"

June had spoken so suddenly that it took Jack a moment to respond even after he'd turned his head to look at her.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"…stay alert, okay?"

He figured out what she was talking about in a matter of seconds. She found herself surprised and even somewhat happy when he smiled and patted her shoulder. She hadn't expected him to even talk to her after what he'd seen her do, but here he was smiling as though it had never happened at all.

"Don't worry. I don't trust him, either."

She wished she could smile back and bit her lip when he turned away from her with a disappointed look on his face. A smile could have fixed that, but she couldn't. How could she smile when they had just found their own undoing?

Oh, well. At least Jack (and Aaron to some extent) knew something was up, and if all else failed, she wasn't afraid to get ugly.

* * *

><p><em><strong>So...uh, yeah...took me a million years to get this done despite there not being anything too interesting happening in it...okay, in my defense, I've finished school for the semester, so I'll have way more time to work on stories from here on out.<strong>_

_**On an unrelated note, now that I've gotten a chance to play it, I issue a decree (with a kingly British accent and everything). If you haven't picked it up yet, you need to get Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. If you haven't gotten a Wii U yet, now is the time. The game is absolutely legendary and you're only doing a diservice to yourself if you don't check it out.**_

_**What are you waiting for?! Go now! SEIZE YOUR GLORY!**_

_**...get it? 'Cause one of the online modes is For Glory? ...no? You really feeling it? Is it Reyn time? **_

_**And now I'm making Xenoblade jokes. I think it's time to call it a day.**_


	8. 7: Critical Damage

CHAPTER SEVEN

**Critical Damage**

Several monotonous minutes of walking and Raymond constantly flirting with Veronica was steadily starting to drive Jack off the deep end. Every other time he spoke, Raymond would make some sort of sexual innuendo, and of course Veronica was too infatuated with him to really notice. Even Aaron was starting to get severely annoyed by it.

Then again, the sight they were about to see next wasn't really going to help the situation a whole lot.

They came across a clearing, the moonlight shining down on the ruins of what they assumed was the settlement, and saying that it was a complete disaster was a bigger understatement than saying brain surgery was difficult. Most of the buildings were in shambles, torn clothes and sheets drifted about in the wind, fog seemed to curl up from the very ground itself, and there were dead bodies lying in dried pools of blood all over.

The McCloud twins stood there looking down at the horrific scene as though all the happiness was gone from their hearts. They'd lived a relatively innocent life up until crashing on this planet. They lived good lives with great people, but they knew that what they saw here would haunt them for the rest of their days.

"I…I think we should get outta here." said Jack.

Veronica was close to calling him out for his cowardice, but she herself felt ungodly uneasy just being near what remained of the village. She caught Raymond smirking out of the corner of her eye, her first hint of distaste for him finally popping up. It didn't dim her infatuation with him, but anyone who mocked her brother always ran the risk of getting on her bad side.

"We'll check it out first." said Aaron. "Then we'll hightail it back to the greenhouse."

"Not that I'm not happy to be in good hands…to an extent," said Raymond. "But I really don't think there's anything here. Not anymore, at least. I agree with John."

"Jack."

"Whatever his name is."

Jack sighed.

"Right here, dipshit. I know you'd like to convince yourself that I'm not, but seriously. Go be a jackass somewhere else."

"I think you forgot we're on a planet of hostile vampiric freaks. Where the hell am I supposed to go?"

"I would respond to that, but I'm kinda worried you'd get all 'oh no you din't' on me."

Up came a slight bit of intimidation when Jack heard Raymond crack a knuckle, but not enough to make Jack run away with his tail between his legs. Why would he? Who was the one with the gun here?

"Knock it off, you two." Aaron said sternly. "We start fighting amongst ourselves and we'll never make it outta here alive. Let's get down there and have a look. Ronnie, you and June mind standing between those two so they don't sack each other while I'm not looking?"

Jack rolled his eyes as June and Veronica stepped between him and Raymond and the group proceeded carefully down the hill. Right away, Jack had one complaint: Veronica had positioned herself next to Raymond, and he was once again giving her "suave" looks while she blushed and smiled sheepishly. The thought to walk over there and slug the smug son of a bitch right across the face took over again, and judging from what she had said earlier, June was probably getting the same thought.

She was, but her idea was a tad more violent and far more satisfying from her perspective.

Jack looked for other things to occupy himself, his eyes immediately landing on a nearby face-down corpse. Without a word, he stepped toward it, quickly attracting the attention of everyone else with Aaron taking a spot right next to him. They looked at each other as they crouched, neither certain they wanted to disturb the corpse, but they managed to both nod before steadily turning it over.

There were a number of things that stood out about it such as the shredded clothes, the cuts, the bite marks, and of course the permanent scream stuck on the dead man's face. What stood out the most, however, was his neck. Right in the center was a hole, the dried blood that had likely jetted from it plastered around it and all down his front. The hole itself looked jagged and torn much like the man's clothes. It looked like it had been dug.

"Oh…oh God…" Jack gagged, cupping his hand to his mouth. "They…they tore his fucking throat out! What kind of soulless monsters are we dealing with down here?!"

Aaron bit his lip and stared down at the ground. He'd wondered the same thing the first time he saw the Nosferats murder someone in cold blood. He knew he'd never understand how they worked. They hadn't wanted to convert this man. Whoever had attacked him must have been really hungry. He knew they weren't just wild beasts. They didn't even count as insane. These things were nothing less than pure evil.

"That's just how they are, I guess."

"Yeah, but…I can't believe they'd do this. I mean, God, look at this! Just how ruthless are these things?!"

Jack heard two things from two different sources: light shuffling of feet from June and a barely audible scoff from Raymond. It was one thing to see weird behaviour from June, but what was with Raymond all of a sudden? Aside from already actively disliking him, of course.

"Okay, everybody." Aaron said. "Let's split up, see if we can find anything handy. Jack. You, Ray, and June go that way. Ronnie, you come with me."

"Wait, why do I have to have two guards or whatever?" jeered Raymond.

"Pardon me, but who's the one who DOESN'T have a gun here?"

Raymond grumbled to himself, but nonetheless proceeded in one direction with Jack and June not far behind. As Jack continued to look out in despair and horror at the desolate landscape, he suddenly felt something brush against his hand. He spun his head to his right, noticing June making an awkward motion away from him. An awkward motion that hinted at her having been reaching for him.

"Is everyone except me just out of their mind right now?" Jack asked himself. "And what the hell is this guy's problem?!"

While Raymond flirted with Veronica so much it made Jack sick to think about it, he kept giving looks of pure venom to June. Maybe it was the way she was dressed or how she hadn't said a single word to him so far, or hey. Maybe it was her being interested in someone other than him. Jealousy. Ruining even platonic relationships since forever.

Meanwhile, Aaron and Veronica took the time to investigate what was left of the individual houses dotted all around. They found practically nothing of worth, cluing them into the village's previous inhabitants having not gotten very far in terms of modern society. They couldn't have if they had been living on an uncharted planet. Veronica winced when her foot brushed up against the head of the nearest corpse, but took the time to bend down and examine it.

"Hey…" she said. "I just noticed something."

"What?"

"Look at all the bodies. They all look at least thirty. There aren't any dead kids or teenagers or anything…well, not that it really matters. Any innocent person getting killed or kidnapped is pretty bad, but…"

"No, no, you're right. It's noteworthy. It might come in handy."

"Key word being 'might'."

Aaron lightly punched her shoulder, prompting her to look over and once again meet with that smile that melted her every time.

"Don't get like that." he said softly, mustering a smile from Veronica as well. "Every single bit of help we can get is welcome."

"Cool. I get that I'm a sixteen-year old sexy furry pinup, but I have personal space, too."

"Huh?"

"You're staring at my butt, dude. I notice things like that."

Aaron flushed bright red as Veronica started to laugh, getting a punch to his own shoulder as she stood up.

"It's fine. It feels good to know that someone's willing to stare at me like that. It makes me feel like I'm actually hot."

"Ooookaaaay."

"Yes, I do workout. Yoga, gymnastics, Wii Fit, all that."

"Wii Fit?"

"Yeah. This is really embarrassing, but I was running out of ideas for a Halloween party one year, so I just dressed up as the trainer."

"You dressed up as the Wii Fit Trainer? With the tank top and tight yoga pants and everything?"

"Yeah. Keep your fantasies in check, please."

"Too late. You're just teasing me now."

Jack could somehow hear their conversation from where he was, and he couldn't help but crack a smile. At least Aaron was a decent enough guy that he wasn't actively trying to flirt with Veronica. Out of all the guys he knew, Aaron seemed like the only one he really trusted with his little sister (even if she was only a few minutes younger than him). Miles ahead of Raymond, who was starting to shoot dirty looks over at Aaron.

"What's up?" Jack dared to ask.

"Nothing you'd understand, sport."

"Sport? Dude, I'm sixteen. Only my dad calls me that."

"Great. Must be a real piece of work."

"He is. Pick a fight with him, and he'll lay you out in a matter of minutes."

"I'll try it."

Jack came to a stop and turned to face Raymond, jabbing his finger into his shoulder.

"Okay, bro. Seriously. What the hell is your problem?! Are you actively TRYING to get me to hate you?!"

Without a word, Raymond seized Jack's hand and began to squeeze. For the first few moments, Jack started to wince at the pressure, his knuckles starting to grind his muscles and cause him immense pain. The pain grew even more substantial on an emotional level when he saw a slight smirk on Raymond's face. His rage flared up, and as June stepped forward to do something about it, Jack threw his gun down and seized Raymond's wrist. It was the pain Raymond himself had applied times two as Jack's fingers pressed down on the pressure points in Raymond's wrist. Raymond released Jack's other hand, but Jack didn't stop there. He kept pressing until Raymond was practically writhing about in pain and panic.

"Okay! I get it! Let go of me!"

Jack didn't stop. Part of him wanted to and stop being so sadistic, but another part of him wanted to let Raymond know he wasn't to be messed with. In perhaps the worst way possible.

A light hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and found himself staring into June's soft eyes. Her soft pleading eyes. He let go, and Raymond looked ready to attack him again before the three heard Aaron call to them.

"Guys! We found something!"

Jack and Raymond were content with just glaring at each other for another few seconds before they and June ran to the wrecked house Aaron had called from, spotting both him and Veronica crouching down as they sifted through the wreckage. Aaron held up the most noteworthy object: someone's holo-pager.

"This looks like the standard-issue ones we got back at home base…" Aaron said to himself. "…wait a minute…oh, no."

Without a word and making sure that everyone was quiet, he flicked the pager on and scanned through its history for any attempted calls. One call was marked #410. Aaron looked down at his own pager and checked the silver number on the bottom. #410.

"No, no, no, no…" he muttered.

He flicked back through the menu and began checking the journal recordings. There was only one, and he quickly activated it. A translucent screen generated above the pager, displaying the house they were in looking a fair bit more intact. The house was empty aside for two noteworthy things: a Cornerian man and a human woman, both decked out in military gear. The Cornerian was panting heavily and make the proper adjustments to the screen so the message would get the best clarity, and the human had her gun trained at the door as the sound of roars and screams came from outside.

"Okay…" the Cornerian said. "Hopefully this message gets out before it's too late…"

The group saw Aaron mouth the words "Oh my God", and it was as if he had heard their wondering thoughts as he turned to them with a panicked look.

"Those…those are two of my squadmates. Wiz and Vanessa."

"I'm Thomas 'Wiz' Callaghan of the Cornerian Research and Reconnaissance Squadron," Wiz continued. "Me and my partner Vanessa Mercer were separated from the rest of our squadron after we were attacked by these…these things. They looked like Lylatians, but they acted like total monsters, and no matter what we did, we couldn't stop them. We couldn't reason with them, we couldn't even kill them."

Wiz jumped at the sound of an almost demonic shriek from outside the house, Vanessa's trigger finger start to twitch as she was obviously starting to panic. Wiz turned back to the camera, but hesitantly as if expecting the building to come crashing down right then and there.

"I don't know how this village managed to hold up against them for this long, but with the kind of defenses they had…or lack thereof, I guess, it was only a matter of time before they got overrun. Picked a great fuckin' time what with the two of us being here. I don't mean to be pessimistic or sound like I've lost hope, but…I've got a bad feeling that we're not going to get out of here alive."

The group heard Aaron start to choke up, and why wouldn't he? He was close with just about everyone in his squadron (aside from Tank who spoke even less than June, and Hunter who was such a jackass it wasn't even worth the effort), and here was one of them essentially reciting his last testament while he waited in fear for the monsters hunting him. The worst part about it was that Aaron could do nothing to stop it. It had already happened, and if by some cruel twist of fate Wiz and Vanessa weren't dead, then…

"But there's something worse than this village getting razed to the ground or me and Vanessa dying here…" Wiz continued. "These things aren't just soulless monsters. They're more than that. They're pure evil. They want everyone to be like them. These creatures…they're trying to spread out. If something isn't done about them…if no one can contain them, they will invade other worlds…and they might even eventually reach Corneria."

There. Right there. That was the thing that clued Jack and Veronica into just how bad their situation was. Granted, how these things were supposed to get to Corneria was beyond them, but the thought of even one Nosferat reaching their homeworld was in the top five most distressing things they'd ever heard. Think that sounds cheesy? Picture just one near-indestructible monster coming across a defenseless bum in an alley and infecting him. That monster and that bum then infect an innocent mother, who then infects her family, and it just creates a horrifying domino effect until there is nothing left but blood-thirsty monsters that can and will kill or convert anything that tries to get in their way. That was what ran through the McClouds heads when they heard Wiz mention an invasion, and with Corneria having been subject to invasion by Venomian natives and mutant fish and how bad that had gotten, they had every reason to fear the worst.

A tearing came from the recording, Vanessa swinging around and aiming her gun at the ceiling.

"Wiz!" she shouted. "They're ripping the roof off! Help me!"

"Shit…whoever gets this, forget about us. Forget about the people in the village! Get off the planet as soon as you can! Save yourself!"

Wiz reached for his gun, rustling the camera just enough that it collapsed where it sat and shut off. After a few seconds of static, the recording ended. Aaron opened his mouth as it ended as if he was about to beg Wiz not to go, then looked away, then lowered his face into his palm, and then started to take quick and deep breathes likely to ensure that he wouldn't start crying in front of his comrades. Veronica wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held him tight, not getting any sort of response out of him until he looked up.

Before them lay the shattered remains of the house's roof, and jutting out of them was a gloved hand. This immediately triggered a sense of panic in Aaron, and he lightly pushed Veronica away and started wrenching the debris away piece by piece until he found exactly who he had feared would be lying underneath it.

"Wiz?!"

Nothing. Even as Aaron dragged him from the rubble, Wiz made no motion or sound, his eyes closed softly and his arms and legs hanging loosely. Aside from the massive scars along his chest and the dried blood caking the wound on his neck, he was perfectly intact, but as Aaron quickly pressed his ear to his fallen comrade's chest, the lack of any audible sound didn't lie.

"No…no, don't you do this to me, you son of a bitch!" he shouted as his start to well up with tears. "You've never given up on a damn thing in your life! We didn't get through all that shit at the Flight Academy just so you could go and die on me! Now wake up!"

When Wiz didn't answer him, Aaron started to strike him across the face over and over again, screaming for him to wake up. No such thing happened, and Aaron went silent. As he stood, his comrades saw his fists begin to shake and could already picture him gritting his teeth as he went from despair to fury in a matter of moments.

"I'm gonna kill every last one of those blood-sucking scumbag motherfuckers…"

His comrades let their sympathy well up inside of them, but Jack got that familiar sensation again. Not the cold dread of Kursed steadily making her way toward him if that's what was going on, but the strange tingling sensation in the back of his head. A warning signal. Then his vision changed, once again dimming everything save for a few select spots on each of his comrades bodies.

Then he looked down at the corpse and saw something he hoped he wouldn't see: heat signatures in the exact same places that he'd seen in the first Nosferat he killed.

Vital signs.

"Aaron, get away from him."

"What?"

"He's not dead. He's been infected. He's trying to trick you."

"How do you know?"

"Because he just woke up!"

Aaron looked down and spotted Wiz, his right eye now open and revealing its iris having turned red. Wiz's mouth stretched into a grin that was almost too big for his face, revealing his now razor sharp teeth.

"Nice night, eh, Aaron?"

"Oh my God."

Jack, Veronica, and June all readied their guns while Aaron could do little more than stand there and look at his converted friend in horror. Wiz stood up, still smiling at Aaron as he menacingly began to approach him.

"Well, whattaya think, old chum?" he asked almost mockingly. "I have to say this suits me pretty well…oh, what? You're gonna shoot me now?"

Aaron certainly didn't want to as he raised his weapon to the still-approaching Wiz. Even after what he said to the twins about having them kill themselves should they end up being bitten, he couldn't bring himself to shoot his own teammate even given the circumstances. He was confused, terrified, despaired, and angry all at once, and even as Wiz kept advancing on him, he couldn't work up the thought to put his finger on the trigger. That was before he even thought of ceasing his uncontrollable trembling.

"Jesus, Aaron, just shoot him already!" Veronica shrieked.

Veronica's sudden shout was all it took to startle Aaron and fire by accident. The shot missed Wiz by a longshot, but he lunged at Aaron regardless, June's fast and mighty foot slamming into the newly born Nosferat being the only thing that saved the still-distraught soldier. Wiz went crashing through what was left of the nearby wall. Just enough time for Aaron to shake himself off and June to turn to the rest of the group.

"He's going to call for reinforcements!" she said sternly.

"Fuck the evac! Haul ass and get outta here!" Jack shouted.

The group dashed out of the house only to meet another familiar figure. A human woman with ripped military gear, blood caking her entire body, and a malevolent look on her face.

"Vanessa?!" Aaron stammered.

"Aw, Aaron." she said in a seductive English accent. "So good to see you in one piece, love."

"No, no, no, no…this…this can't be happening."

A rustle behind them. Wiz had already recovered.

"Trust me, buddy." he chuckled. "It's happening. Shall we, Van?"

Vanessa nodded, and before anyone could stop them, the two of them reared their heads back and unleashed a horrifying shriek. Ear-piercing as the group found out. Only Aaron and June realized exactly what the cry was for. Not just to stun them, but for a far worse purpose, but with the ringing in their ears getting more painful by the second, they couldn't muster up the strength to even shout out what was going to happen. The twins and Raymond found out as soon as the ringing stopped and the shrieks were responded to with more shrieks from a greater distance away.

"They're coming." Aaron growled.

"Do we bail?!" Jack asked nearly hysterically.

"We aren't going to make it out fast enough before the swarm gets here. With our kind of luck, they'll be waiting to ambush us the second we try to leave. We'll have to stick it out. Take down as many as we can and make a path through them. Ray, try to stay between us so you don't get nabbed. And guys…don't shoot Wiz or Vanessa."

"But didn't you say…"

"I know what I said! Just don't kill them!"

Pity. All Jack and Veronica felt for him was pity. He was thinking…or more accurately HOPING that there was some way to reverse it. They realized how hypocritical it was since he was the one who said that they couldn't show any mercy to the infected and now he was telling them not to kill his infected comrades, but in the same situation, they figured they'd definitely do the same thing.

"Here they come!" June shouted.

"Ah, shit, they brought Breathers!" Veronica hollered.

As the giant snakes came slithering in with groups of Nosferats mounted on their backs, they opened fire, taking special care to aim in the exact spots they had determined from before. Wiz and Vanessa lunged forward, aiming for Aaron at first until Jack got in the way.

"What have we here?" Wiz asked. "A little cohort?"

Jack didn't answer, instead opting to keep his gun firmly trained on them. His determined expression didn't help him; the two of them heard his breathing start to accelerate and could even see a light tremble.

"Aww, what's wrong?" Vanessa asked with a light giggle. "You scared? Come a little closer, honey."

"Back off, lady!" Jack hollered. "No way!"

As if she would listen. She pounced on him, pinning him to the ground and gnashing her teeth at his neck as he desperately pinned her back.

"Drive 'em back without shootin' 'em?" Jack thought in panic-stricken manner. "Easier said than done, Aaron! WAY easier said than done!"

Meanwhile, Veronica and Aaron stood back-to-back as they fired again and again at the oncoming hordes, only breaking their close proximity when a Breather snapped at them.

"Ronnie!" Aaron shouted. "Ya mind finishing that thing off for me?"

"No problem!" Veronica called back. "…okay, yes problem because it's a big hostile snake, but I'm on it!"

As the Breather lunged again, Veronica dashed off to the side and leapt onto its back, several well-placed punches and kicks sending its riders falling off in droves. The Breather bucked about while Veronica clung on for dear life, cheering all the way.

"C'mon, ya big lizard!" she whooped. "Whattaya got?! Mechanical bulls at amusement parks are tougher than you!"

Either the Breather didn't enjoy being called weak or it was fully aware that its life was in danger. It began bucking harder and harder, even resorting to rolling over and trying to crush Veronica underneath it. It didn't count on the young McCloud vaulting herself into the air above it. When the snake rolled right-side up again and she saw that she had the perfect opening, she fired a single bullet. Bulls-eye. The great snake collapsed, leaving the surrounding Nosferats to look at the corpse in shock.

"Good goin', Ronnie!" Aaron shouted. "…oh, shit. Give your brother a hand over there!"

Clearly he was in dire need of it when Vanessa wrenched the pistol out of his hands and cast it into the nearby lake when she finally broke his grip on her.

"Ooo, bad luck, little foxy." she whispered in that same sultry voice. "Don't worry, though. This isn't going to hurt one bi…"

She trailed off when she saw the malevolent glow in his eyes. As his rage peaked, Jack seized the fiend by the neck and steadily wrenched her off of him. Even after he was on his feet, he kept his grip tight and hauled her off the ground, staring furiously into her eyes as a steadily growing fear found its way into her subconscious and she began to gasp for breath.

"Lady," he said in a hoarse voice. "You've gone and done it. You've gone and royally pissed me off. You think me getting a little wimpy over losing my gun is me getting really upset, right? Wrong. You have never seen me really upset."

If the closest Nosferat hadn't slammed into Jack and sent him sprawling over, he would have tossed Vanessa as far as he could throw her. But no. Reality had different plans, and those plans involved a much weaker Nosferat baring his fangs at him and trying to get at his neck. With one strong kick to the stomach, Jack had him off and kicked up the nearest object he could use as a melee weapon, which in this case happened to be a six foot long root.

"This seems a little familiar, doesn't it?"

I dunno, does it?

He juggled the root into a suitable position in his hands, settling on holding it in both hands like a bo staff and swinging it as such at the first Nosferat that ventured too close. A jab here, a good old thwack over the head there, and a well-deserved crotch shot elsewhere. One particular Nosferat got a bit too hostile with him and seized the root in mid-swing, making the mistake of trying to intimidate Jack.

"Too late. Emo kid's pissed." Jack spat.

He shoved forward, stumbling the Nosferat before he snapped his own makeshift weapon in two over his knee. With the two pieces now having ends as sharp as a point, Jack began his finishing blow after a well-placed kick to his opponent's face. He stabbed the shoulder on his left with the piece on his left hand and the right one with the piece in his right, the splintered ends cutting in relatively easy when combined with the sheer amount of force he put into each stab. When he pulled the pieces back, the splintered ends were doused in blood, but he wasn't finished there. He kicked the Nosferat in the chest and sent him sprawling to the ground, and with a flying leap with the pieces raised over his head, he stabbed into the heart.

The Nosferat shrieked in pain and bucked about as blood started to spurt from the wound, finally collapsing in a dead heap when Jack pulled the pieces back and stood back to admire his morbid handiwork.

"Okay…I'm both impressed with myself and disgusted, but hey. A guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do."

What the guy should have done was realize that there was a Breather barreling toward him from behind. He did, of course, but by the time he turned around…

…he went sprawling out of the way as Veronica slammed him out of the way.

"Ronnie, NO!" Jack shouted.

Too late. The Breather continued its trajectory toward Jack, but spat at the little morsel that had been idiotic enough to get in its way. When the fluid hit the right side of her chest, Veronica felt like someone had just lit her on fire, but she figured that would have been far less painful. Even when she screamed, which she would later go on record saying it was the loudest she'd ever screamed in her life, it wasn't nearly enough to convey how much it burned as she fell to the ground convulsing in agony.

"Oh my God, RONNIE!" Aaron shouted as he and Raymond ran to Veronica's aid.

Jack meanwhile had focused his sights on his sister's attacker. It didn't matter who it was. Human or Lylatian, clean or infected, man or animal. If anyone hurt his sister like this idiot snake had, they had Jack to answer to, and it wasn't going to end well.

"You picked the wrong day."

The Breather slithered toward Jack again, Jack himself running forward and letting out a loud shout before leaping headlong at the reptilian beast. He seized it around the middle and dragged its entire length with him through his aerial trajectory. As the snake bucked about in his grasp, Jack quickly hauled his way to its head. With his free hand clenched firm, it connected with the snake's head with a resounding crack. The snake roared in pain. He punched again. He felt the skull start to crack under the hide. He punched again, this time just under the left eye. The eye was off-centre and even starting to bleed when his fist retracted. He punched one last time right in the Breather's snout, sending it shooting under the surface of the lake before Jack himself splashed down as well.

The water was just the thing to cool him off, though the steadily growing red hue of the Breather's blood didn't make it quite as relaxing as Jack would have hoped. The lake was surprisingly deep from what he had seen, and the Breather had sunk a fair distance down, either dead or heavily dazed from the beating Jack had given it.

"Wow...I got issues, man."

He spotted June still fighting off the remaining Nosferats and Aaron and Raymond tending to the fallen Veronica. Without a second thought, Jack began swimming over to the shore.

And then it happened.

"Jack…" Veronica called to the best of her ability. "Watch…out!"

Jack had no instance to react this time. He heard the loud splash and the accompanying hiss, saw Veronica's terrified look, and knew that something terrible was about to happen to him. Sure enough, it did. The Breather's fangs sank into Jack's shoulder, and he had time to let out one pained scream before the great snake dragged him under the water. It wasn't enough that the Breather had him by the shoulder with its teeth. It wrapped its coils around him, too, ensuring that if it went down, it was taking him with it.

"Dammit…" Jack cursed in his head. "This can't happen…not now…"

The coils squeezed his chest and forced the air out, the blood pouring from Jack's shoulder staining the water around them a sickly red. No matter how hard Jack struck the beast this time, it wouldn't let him go. It bit down harder. Jack screamed and made an attempt to breathe, forgetting that he was ten feet underwater and still sinking. He began to feel light-headed. He stopped bucking about, and he started to black out.

"Please, God…don't let it end like this…"

It didn't. Though his hearing was very nearly muted and he was very close to passing out, he unmistakably heard something dive under the water. Through his weakened vision, he saw a tall and lithe shape shooting down through the water like a bullet.

June. Coming down fast and with a vengeance.

She moved off to the side, hoping Jack wouldn't see what she was about to do. Once she was out of his line of sight, she opened her mouth and bit down just under the Breather's skull. Hard. It shrieked and finally released Jack, making a vain attempt to swim away as fast as it could. It didn't get far as June gave chase, seizing the dent in its hide with both hands and pulling. Through his steadily closing eyes, Jack could see June ripping the great beast cleanly in half, forming a dark red cloud that she came streaking through toward him with her hand outstretched. A part of him wanted to swim away after what he had seen this woman do, but then another part of him overpowered the other, that second part of course being common sense. Using whatever strength he had left, he closed the distance between the two and let June wrap her arms around his torso.

Within a few moments, they pierced the surface and Jack took in a huge gasp of air, June carefully dragging him along until they rested against the shoreline. June gently brushed her fingers against Jack's wound, and while Jack still felt a smarting pain in his shoulder, the sting when she touched it was very light. The wound was still quite gruesome, but it certainly wasn't unmanageable. He was too weak to move for now, letting June clutch him in what felt a lot like a hug as his head rested against her shoulder.

"Thanks…" he panted, still trying to steady his heartbeat and his breathing.

"My pleasure." she whispered. "Just breathe. Try to relax."

"What about Ronnie? Is she…"

June turned her head toward the small group of Nosferats steadily approaching them, led by Wiz and Vanessa while Aaron and Raymond did their best to hold them back from the fallen Veronica.

"How cute." Vanessa chuckled. "Young love. Not that I don't wanna break up this little display…but I do."

Jack was too tired to notice or care about what happened next. June grew a furious look, her eyes flashing as she curled her lips in a frightening snarl.

"Get. Away. NOW!"

Believe it or not, they stopped. Not just because June had greatly intimidated them, but for another reason entirely.

"Wait…" one of them muttered. "Is that…no, it can't be."

"It is!" said another one.

"What?" asked Wiz. "What's the big deal?"

One of the Nosferats whispered something into her ear, and she grew the same scared look. She and the rest of the Nosferats looked at Aaron, then at Veronica, then back at June, and then at the stained red water where the Breather had gone under.

"We're leaving." said Wiz. "Now. We can deal with them another time."

With that, the still-standing Nosferats began their retreat, several of them looking over their shoulders at June and one even mouthing the words "How could you do this?" She kept glaring at them until she was sure they were all gone, and at last the clearing was tranquil and quiet once again.

Save for one heavily injured female Nosferat that had her leg stuck under the body of her Breather mount. The second Aaron spotted her, he marched over to her and gave her perhaps the scariest look she'd ever seen from anyone.

"Wiz and Vanessa. Those two were part of the Cornerian Research and Reconnaissance Squadron. Counting them and me, there's six of them in total. Don't you dare try and bullshit me. Where are the other three?"

The Nosferat's only answer was a pained scowl. Aaron didn't know if she didn't have it in her to answer him properly or if she was that stubborn, but he didn't care. He flipped his gun around in his hand and struck her hard across the face, forcing a pained scream out of her before Aaron seized her by the throat.

"ANSWER ME, YOU BITCH! WHERE ARE THEY?!"

"The Black Web! They're in the Black Web!"

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"A-are…are you gonna kill me?!"

The barrel of Aaron's shotgun pressed against her heart, and the Nosferat began to pant heavily as she dreaded what would happen next, especially when Aaron said "I would certainly like to." At that point, it almost looked like the Nosferat was about to start crying from the way her eyes were glazing up, and even though Aaron felt wrong about it, he felt a strange sense of sadness watching her terrified composure.

His pity wasn't enough to stop him. June, however, was.

"Aaron. She's not worth it. I know where the Black Web is. Just…let her go, okay?"

It wouldn't do his well-being or his team's to do so, but it wouldn't do his mental state any good to refuse. He sighed and holstered his gun before cocking his head, signalling for June to help him. With one heave, the two pushed the Breather's corpse off of the Nosferat and freed her. She stood, shaking her leg off and taking a few well-needed breaths. For a brief moment, she made the mistake of lingering and looking at Aaron with curious eyes.

"I…I don't…"

"GO!"

He drew his shotgun again as he shouted, and she was off in an instant. He stood there, venting his rage for a few seconds until June laid her soft hand on his shoulder.

"June…please tell me there's a way to turn them back to normal."

She hesitated. He had no idea why, but she did at least give him some form of clarity and comfort.

"There is. I don't know how exactly to do it, but I just know that there is."

"Good. That's all I needed." Aaron said. "Let's get these two back to the greenhouse. There's some medical kits we can patch 'em up with. Ray, can you help Jack up?"

Raymond sighed in disgust, but nonetheless reached for Jack only for the young McCloud to slap his hand away.

"What, you wanna lie there and bleed out?" Raymond asked.

"I can pick my own ass up, thank you very much." Jack growled back.

And he did, much to the surprise of everyone there, and as Aaron hauled his groaning sister off the ground, he slung Veronica's arm over his shoulder.

"You sure?" Aaron asked. "You took a pretty bad bite back there."

"I can take it." Jack said with a nod. "You got her over there?"

"Yep."

"Good. Let's move, people!"

"Heh. Look at you giving orders."

They marched away, June and Raymond taking up the rear with the former making sure to keep herself between her other three comrades and the latter. As they proceeded back to home base, Aaron looked away into the dark sky and thought about what had happened thus far. This whole thing was a nightmare, and up until now, there had been no signs of it clearing up. He'd never felt more despaired than seeing Wiz and Vanessa as the monsters hunting them, but with what June said combined with the knowledge of where the rest of his squadmates were, he was starting to feel like there was at least a little ember in the darkness.

Nonetheless, he wouldn't be satisfied until whoever was running this madness was choking on their own blood.

* * *

><p>"I couldn't believe it even when I saw her." Vanessa said. "I…I can't believe she'd turn her back on her own family like this."<p>

"You sure she's not just pretending to work with them and just striking when they least expect it?"

"What, with the way she was protecting that Cornerian from us?! Killing Breathers and even some of us?! I could see it in her bloody eyes! I mean, what did you expect from a Halfling?!"

The Nosferats chattered amongst themselves, most of them furious and wanting to hunt down and slaughter their intruders. There were shouts of "she betrayed us" and "let's kill every single one of those little wretches" before a figure finally emerged from the shadow and they went silent.

"We'll have none of that." she said in a soft but firm voice. "I told you that you aren't to lay a single finger on her. Someday she will lead you as I have."

"There's no way she'll ever stack up to you!" shouted a young Nosferat. "You've given us a home, a purpose! She'll never match that greatness!"

"You'd be surprised. It seems she taken an interest in that Cornerian boy, though."

"That just makes it worse, though! He's an outsider and she can't even turn him!"

The figure glared at her subordinate, who went silent and cowered before her in an instant. She took pity on him almost instantly and gently clasped his cheeks.

"There's no need to fear. He won't be a threat. He's shown nothing but cowardice throughout his entire time here. When the time comes, he won't be any match for us. You do have a point, though. The girl and the human need to be dealt with as quickly as possible, too."

"Wha…what do you suggest?"

"They will be marching toward the Black Web in search of the other humans, correct? We'll spring a trap for them there. We don't need to hunt them. We can bring them straight to us. Okay?"

"Well…you are our beloved matriarch. You haven't steered us wrong yet."

Wiz stepped forward.

"Perhaps, Lolita, but what about June? Won't she be able to save them?"

Lolita Ferdinand smiled sweetly at her clan's newfound ally. She especially had no reason fear from June.

"She'll have the good sense to come back to me."

"Will she be punished accordingly?"

"No. She's just a child. She's struggling with who she is and must be, that's all. Besides, I'd never do anything to harm my own daughter."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Lolita who, you ask? Is she some obscure Star Fox character you don't know about? Maybe an evil double of Katt or something? Well, no. You remember Star Fox Subspecies where Marcus and the gang went to the megaprison on Kew? If you don't...well, go back and read it. (HE'S WHORING AGAIN!)<strong>_

**_And the evils of procrastination strike again and prevent me from getting work done over the Christmas holiday. Ugh, just stick me up there in the top ten list of consistent failures._**

**_SOUNDTRACK SO FAR_**

_Meet Jack McCloud_- "Solitary Shell" by Dream Theater

_When bloodsuckers attack- _"Before I Forget" by Slipknot

_Through the woods- _"Damned" from Call of Duty: Black Ops

_A few moments of bonding-_ "Under the Milky Way" by the Church

_Attack in the village- _"Murmaider" by Dethklok


	9. 8: Beauty and the Beast

CHAPTER EIGHT

**Beauty and the Beast**

"Get Ronnie patched up." Aaron said sternly as they finally slid to halt in their safe haven. "I'll go make sure we weren't followed. Ray, think you can patch Ronnie up?"

"Gotcha." said Raymond. "Toss me that kit and I'll have a go at it."

Aaron tossed him the kit and took off back toward the back entrance after he and Jack set Veronica down. She yelped when her burnt side touched the ground, Jack immediately turning her onto her other side. He'd never really been this concerned for his sister before what with her being the adventurous one, yet here he was worrying whether or not she was going to live or die. Granted, it didn't look like this injury was going to be enough to kill her, but the way she screamed when Raymond steadily began to apply pressure with a cool and wet patch of gauze was nearly enough to eraser that thought from his mind immediately.

"Alright, Ronnie, I'm just got put this blanket under your back." Raymond said softly. "I need to elevate the burnt spot. Deep breaths, okay?"

Veronica nodded while still shaking, but screamed again when Raymond lightly increased the pressure. That was it. Jack couldn't take it anymore.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked.

Of all the times for Raymond to act like a jackass, this was probably the worst of them, but he did it anyway.

"You can sit down, shut up, and let me do my work for starters."

"Wha…I just wanna help!"

"You can't help! Just get lost, idiot!"

"Hey, fuck you! She's my sister, and I'm gonna…"

Jack stepped forward, and the second he did, Raymond stood up and placed one hand on Jack's chest. The resulting push sent Jack sprawling backward onto his rear end, and he was surprised just how much strength had gone into it. This had been beyond the strength of the grab Raymond had on him earlier, but what was really different this time was that Jack's anger hadn't flared up and granted him a great deal of extra strength. What happened? Was it just spontaneous?

When Raymond saw the despaired and furious expression on Jack's face, he scowled. He was getting sick of how over-emotional this kid could get.

"Oh, don't give me that look, you big baby. You're completely worthless, you know that?"

"You piece of…

"What? Piece of what? You really wanna pick a fight with me, kid? Who's the one helping your sister here? You should be thanking me."

"Fuck you!"

He took off, marching off to the hill he'd found the night before. He ignored the smarting pain in his arm and just kept his current objective in mind: put as much distance as possible between him and Raymond.

"God, that guy can just go fuckin' eat a bowl of fuckin' fuck, just fuckin' shove his fuckin' head right up his motherfuckin' ass, that...fuckin' fuck."

Constantly spewing out the queen mother of dirty words as he thought about what Raymond had said sadly brought him no comfort. We all know at this point that Jack was a very shy and passive individual, but in those few moments of Raymond rolling his eyes and calling him worthless in front of his own sister, he had every thought to punch him square in his smug face. Just who the hell did that guy think he was?

He didn't care that he was injured and that Raymond was a skilled medic. He'd rather bleed out than let that glorified "lady-killer" anywhere near him now…and was that him approaching from behind right now?

"Get lost, asshole!" he growled.

"Pardon me?"

Jack's ears pricked up and he flushed bright red at the sound of June's voice.

"Uhhh…sorry, I…I thought you were…"

"No need to apologize. I second everything you just said…especially that whole series of 'fucks'."

"Well, it's nice to know that someone other than me thinks he's a good-for-nothing clod."

He sat and let June sidle up beside him, noticing that she had a bottle in one and a cloth in the other.

"Want me to clean you up?"

"Better you than that schmuck."

"Is that some kind of insult?"

"What?! No!"

He groaned in frustration when he saw that she was giggling again.

"Kidding." she said. "You know I like seeing you get all nervous like that."

"Could you please not do that? Okay? I'm not in the mood for it."

"I know the feeling. But seriously. Do you want me to clean you up?"

"Yes, please."

She knelt in front of him and poured the bottle's contents onto the cloth, then squeezed out the excess liquid.

"Alright. Hold tight. This is peroxide, so it's gonna sting…a lot."

"Wha -EEEYAAAAGH!

"I warned you."

The liquid burned like red hot needles, but Jack couldn't deny that this was relieving the disgusting and painful feeling of a ruined shoulder. The peroxide stung him severely, and he had to grit his teeth to avoid crying out again, but June was certainly a marvel of a medic. She moved the cloth to just the right spots to minimize the pain after the initial sting, and he eventually found himself in a perfectly relaxed state.

"Feel better?"

"Much. Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Tell you the truth, you're resisting the venom on a spectacular level. I wonder why…never mind. let's wash it off."

She took out another bottle filled with water and poured it over the wound. The peroxide and remaining spurts of blood were washed away in an instant, and Jack let out a content sigh.

"That feels good."

"Do I?"

"...we're having a moment here. Please don't ruin it."

"A moment?"

"Goddammit…"

June giggled again, and this time Jack laughed along with her before looking up through the ceiling again. Concordia was still there as the ultimate way to comfort him…that, and June gently massaging his wound as she stared at it almost longingly, though Jack himself was too preoccupied to notice.

"Y'know, I'm kind of looking forward to the future."

"What do you mean?"

"Like…I dunno, getting married and having kids. Do you ever think about that?"

"No. You already know how I feel about family."

"Really? You don't wanna find a nice guy and settle down?"

"Maybe I'm just worried that I'll be a bad mother, I guess."

"Hey, you treated my wound. That's motherly enough…and as for the getting-a-husband thing, you have the looks and personality to snag a good one. Not to mention the intimacy if I can put it that way, sucking my blood and all."

June had been too focused on suckling from Jack's wound like an infant from a bottle to pay attention to anything else. As soon as she realized he knew what she was doing, her eyes widened and she pulled away from him, her mouth open in shock and revealing that her teeth were lightly stained with his blood.

"How did you know?!"

"You doing all that crazy stuff earlier couldn't be a coincidence."

"Oh, God…this is just…I'm gonna be sick."

Jack had no time to stop her before she got to her feet and ran away, far too fast for him to catch up with her even though he certainly tried.

"June, wait!"

"Leave me the hell alone!"

He prayed that no one else heard that. Partly because he didn't need Raymond calling him worthless again, partly because he wanted to be left alone with her, and mostly because he was afraid. Of her? Of course, but also for her. Aaron said that the infection completely brainwashed the host in a matter of hours, yet it had been an entire day since he'd been bitten by her and here he was feeling completely normal. She wasn't like the other Nosferats, and not just because she was on his side. He had to find out everything he could

But his lungs and legs sadly didn't agree with him, and he went skidding across the dirt on his feet before tripping and ended up faceplanting into the ground.

"Son of a bitch…I can't even help one single woman feel better."

But he had to try. He got to his feet, brushed himself up, and took a deep breath before speaking again.

"June! I know you can hear me! I'm not mad about it, and if you're worried I'm gonna rat you out, don't be! I won't say anything if you don't want me to!"

His words landed on no ears…or so he thought until he heard a shaky voice in the tree nearby.

"How do I know you're not lying to me?"

He said nothing for a few moments. She had him there. How could he convince her that he wasn't lying? Did she not trust him? Well, of course not. She wouldn't trust anyone with a secret like this. Perhaps it would be better off if he just left her alone…

No. That would be cowardly and just make Raymond somehow correct in saying that he was worthless. If he couldn't make June feel better about the situation, he couldn't do anything to help anyone.

"All I can give you is my word."

Nothing happened for a brief moment, but June must have decided that Jack's word was enough. She dropped from the tree and nervously approached him, ironic since she could easily rip his head off if he did something wrong.

"So…what are you? Your bite didn't infect me, so you can't be a Nosferat."

He hadn't asked it out of shock or disgust. It was genuine curiosity. Any answer would intrigue him rather than repulse him. While that should have been a good sign, she knew that one particular bit about her would make him frightened of her all over again.

"The reason you haven't turned is because I'm what my people call a Halfling. I have most of the powers of the Nosferats, but I can't run as fast and I'm not as strong, and as you could probably tell, my bite's non-infectious. Also…I'm sorry. I didn't want to drink from you. I was just so hungry."

"Hey, it's okay. To be honest, I kind of enjoyed it."

"…you're sick."

Jack laughed until he noticed that June hadn't even cracked a smile.

"Wait…you're being serious?"

"Nosferats are disgusting. The fact that I'm half-Nosferat is disgusting, and my conception and parents are disgusting. My father was from…I think it was Corneria, but it might have been Katina. I'm not sure. I don't really care, either. He was just as...well..."

She said nothing for several moments, causing Jack to wonder if she had forgotten what she had to say, but no. She was just too disgusted by what she was about to say.

"My mother raped him while the two were in prison together."

"So your mother was a Nosferat and your father was a regular Lylatian."

"Is. My mother's still alive…she's here. On this planet…"

"You lied. You do know about your family."

"But I'd prefer it if I didn't…every single one of them is a heartless monster, only concerned with feeding themselves and spreading their poison further."

Jack thought. What would it be like if everyone in his family but him was a monster? What if all they were concerned with doing was eating and procreating? It would be a nightmare…and what if they expected him to be just like them?

How convenient that he thought that at that particular moment.

"It's even worse because my mother wants me to be just like her. You see…she's the ringleader of this whole insane cult. The higher-ranking Nosferats are my cousins, aunts, and uncles. All of the other ones are the people that were taken from that village and anyone else who was stupid enough to come here."

"I had a feeling you'd say that."

"But it gets worse. My mother tries to justify everything she did by saying it was all for me. All this corruption was so I could have a beautiful world to live in. A world full of beautiful creatures like us. Of course, her definition of beautiful isn't the same as mine. To her, beauty is survival. Evolution…being at the top of the food chain and killing and eating anything that objects to it. She wants me to be like that! She wants me to be a carnivorous beast!"

Jack may have looked stoic as he listened to her, but inside, he was disgusted at the thought of a mother forcing her child to be something she didn't want to be. He had thought that the two were similar at first, but they weren't. Jack simply didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, but June was being forced to be something she wasn't, and her mother was deciphering that as what she was meant to be.

"I still remember the day that she got me to drink for the first time." June continued. "Naturally born Nosferats don't need to start drinking blood until they're about ten years old, but even before that my mother was scaring me with talks about how our family would eventually spread out across Lylat and take it all for ourselves. She snatched someone from the village…relished in watching him beg for mercy…and then she ripped his head clean off. I…I almost screamed. I wanted to stop her…I should have stopped her, but I was just so scared. I was thinking 'dear God, this thing is my mother?!' I threw up, and when my mother saw that, she…she looked shocked."

It happened again. As June described the event, Jack could see it playing out in his head. It wasn't just taking June's words and forming them into an image. He could hear everything they had said. He didn't imagine any of it. He was seeing and hearing what had really happened, and it truly was vile. Every atrocity June's mother committed was etched into his mind and marked her as nothing less than a pure unchained beast of the night. But something about her looked strangely…familiar.

That wasn't what truly made him angry, however. He flared his nostrils at the last thing June had said.

"How could she be shocked that you were acting like that when she slaughtered someone right in front of you?!"

Jack had raised his voice this time. The more he thought about this woman, the angrier he got. He made a mental note. The second he saw her, he was going to put a bullet in her chest before she even had time to blink.

"I told you. She wants me to be just like her, but I just can't. I don't want to see people suffer. I don't want to live in the darkness forever…I just don't know why she can't understand that."

"…what's your mother's name?"

"Hertzler is my father's last name. My mother…her name is Lolita Ferdinand."

"What?! That psycho is your mother?!"

"Yeah…she and my father were in the same cell at the CFE Megaprison on Kew for a little while before she… you know. The prison was destroyed by the Cornerian military twenty-two years ago, and my mother and father were the only two survivors. My mother had me a year later and gave me to my father to take care of while she looked for a planet that she and the rest of my family could settle on before she'd come back to bring me there. She said that if she found out that my father had even thought about hurting me, he'd suffer a fate worse than death."

"What's that even supposed to mean?"

"Beats me. My dad did keep his promise not to hurt me, but he kept living in constant fear of what happened that night. Eventually when I was five, he finally decided he couldn't take it anymore and…he hung himself."

"So I guess Nosferats don't age past a certain point, either?"

"No. More of that beauty bullshit. I may look like I'm around eighteen, but I've gotta be at least twenty by now. I'm not sure. I don't remember when my birthday is."

Jack sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Man, this is heavy."

"Jack, why are you reacting so calmly to this?"

"Why? I guess…I kinda feel the same way."

"Like your family is full of monsters?"

"No. I'm proud of every single one of them, but…it's just something I can't live up to. You can't live up to your mother's wishes because you're more warm-hearted than her, and me? My maternal grandfather is the galaxy's top bounty hunter, my dad and his dad and grandfather were all leaders of Star Fox, and my sister's the biggest daredevil I know. I can't live up to that because…well, I'm a coward. The fact that I just recently killed something nearly puts me in shock every time I think about it."

"That's not like me at all."

"Well, I'm trying."

"You're not like me because you've got your whole life ahead of you. You just don't know what to do with it. Me? I'm having my life decided for me without any way to fight back. Now be honest. What are you trying to pull?"

"I guess…I'm just trying to make you feel better. Yeah, we don't really have that much in common, but I…I like you."

She had expected him to retort angrily, and when he didn't, she sat dumbfounded. Why wasn't he looking at her like she was a monster? She was glad that he wasn't, but none of it made any sense to her. He didn't feel fear. He felt compassion and a longing to please her…he couldn't possibly…

"…why?"

"I dunno…you're pretty. You're really strong, you're really smart…and yeah. Like you said. You're really kind, too. Not really sure what I can say other than that. You're just kind of…awesome."

At last, June smiled. This was exactly what she needed. Someone to talk to about her problems. Someone to just spill everything out to. It had taken all her might to not cry in front of him, but now came tears of joy, and he then demonstrated his kindness again by wiping away her tears.

"Thank God for you, Jack…you're pretty 'awesome', too."

Jack sheepishly grinned and scratched at the back of his neck.

"Yeah, well…I'm not that great. I mean, Aaron's a lot tougher than me. It's kind of a wonder that you haven't hooked up with him. Speaking of which, how did you two get together, anyway?"

"I was out hunting when I found him. I couldn't bear to think about what might have happened if the other Nosferats found him, so I tricked him into thinking I was a survivor and the two of us went into hiding."

"So this whole 'killing your own kind' thing doesn't bother you?"

"No…not yet, anyway. And don't get me wrong, Aaron's great and all, but he's a bit too…how should I put this…chaotic for my liking? Yeah, that's it. Optimistic and always willing to lend a helping hand, certainly, but chaotic."

She rested her head on his shoulder, her touch tingling his skin and sending a chill up his spine. Regardless, he didn't move.

"I like you more."

Jack blushed, but nevertheless smiled. Perhaps he wasn't so worthless after all.

"On the subject of having, uh… stuff in common. What do you like to for fun?"

"Mmm…well, I like to climb trees. Stare up at the moon."

"Hey, stargazing! We do have something in common!"

He relished in finally getting her to laugh, though grew embarrassed yet again with her next statement.

"How about swimming?"

"…Huh?"

"Come on. Deep in your juvenile mind, you know you want to get in the pool with me."

"…okay, maybe a little."

"A little's all I need. Come."

"HUH?!"

He couldn't say another word before she dragged him off to the pool. A cool sweat formed over his head and he began fidgeting all over. The thought of him performing such a lewd act with her, even after they'd had such a tender moment, was unnerving to say the least. Then again, if he was going to make her feel better about…well, her entire life, he'd have to go through with it. He just wasn't looking forward to being half-naked in front of her.

Before long, they were by the water and June was scantily-clad, this time opting to keep her underwear on. She gracefully dove into the water and surfaced with a light breath before tuning to him, expecting him to do the same. He stared for a few moments until she smirked at him, at which time he started fumbling to get all his clothes off.

"Jesus Christ, McCloud, what are you doing, what the fuck are you doing WHOA!"

He had tripped over his pants just as he had taken them off, falling into the cool water with no way to stop himself. June laughed as he surfaced gasping for breath before breast-stroking over to him.

"You know how to make an entrance, I'll give you that."

"Not helped by this being the most uncomfortable situation I've ever been in."

"Here. Does this help?"

She embraced him. At first it felt as disturbing as getting into the water with her since she was ungodly beautiful and was not only much older than him but also much taller than him, but as he just let it happen, it began to become more comforting. Every negative emotion Raymond had made him feel had been wiped away in an instant, and as he stared deeper into her eyes, he felt like they were washing over him like a warm blanket.

"Umm…are you thirsty?" he asked suddenly.

"A little bit…but I don't know if I should do that."

"Don't worry about it. Like I said, it feels good in a strange kind of way. I can be your blood doll for as long as you want."

"A what?"

"...never mind. Anyway, drink up if you like."

June smiled and leaned toward his neck as he tilted his head to the side for her. She let out a soft hiss as she opened her mouth and clamped her jaws down on his skin. He felt his blood begin to be sucked out of his body and he started to feel weak as it left him, but in a pleasant sort of way. She let out light and pleasured moans while he remained speechless, though breathing heavily. It felt good…almost too good. It felt intimate, in fact.

She finally drew back when he started to stagger, though kept her eyes firmly fixed on his with a smile still on her bloodstained lips. She promptly licked the stain off and swallowed.

"Delicious."

"So, um…you don't have anyone in mind to date?"

"We don't date in my family. We see them and we take control of them for one passionate night…and fair warning. I'm not certain, but I think a lot of incest goes on."

"Sick. So there's some BDSM freaks in your heritage?"

"Yes, though as I've told you, I don't give a damn what they think. On the subject of dating, who've you been with?"

Jack looked away. It was embarrassing to just think about, but he still managed to get it out.

"I…haven't dated anyone in my entire life."

"Really? Not even kissed?"

"Nope. I've never asked, never been asked, never even thought about it."

She placed her hand on his cheek and turned his head back toward her now steadily closing the gap between them yet again.

"Can I honour you with your first?"

She didn't get the chance as they heard loud thumping footsteps just before Aaron tore around the corner.

"Oh, man, I gotta shit I gotta shit I gotta shit!" he panted to himself, completely ignoring the two and dropping his pants.

"Jesus Christ, dude!" Jack shouted.

"Holy shit! Oh my God, dude, don't scare me like that!"

"Then don't drop your pants without checking! No one wants to see your junk!"

"No, but they all dig it…okay, what's going on here?"

He noticed how close together Jack and June were upon pulling his pants up, and the smirk that came over his face was enough to make Jack want to break the embrace, but June wouldn't let him. She kept mischievously peering at him while Aaron doubled over snickering. Jack grumbled to himself. Why did he keep getting sucked into ridiculous situation like this?

"Yeah, ha ha, real funny!" he shouted. "If you tell Ronnie, I'm gonna take your eyes out!"

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, man!" Aaron laughed. "Oh, and speaking of Ronnie, she's doing good. All patched up. Ray actually did a pretty good job."

"And you're saying that when I can still see your Johnson!"

Aaron burst into a fit of laughter yet again.

"Oh my God, I'm gonna bust a gut!"

"Great. Take your busting gut AND your nasty ass somewhere else. I mean, shit!"

Aaron obeyed after pulling up his pants, but kept chuckling as he stumbled away to do his business elsewhere. Jack turned back to June and waited for her to lean in again, but she simply smiled and sighed.

"Sorry, honey. Our human friend killed the moment."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. No sugar for you right now."

As awkward as the whole situation had been, Jack still couldn't help but feel disappointed as June began to climb up out of the water, getting his fair share of looks at her body as she did. She salaciously smiled over her shoulder at him.

"Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind later. Don't run too far, okay?"

And then she walked away, leaving Jack to feel the strangest combination of disappointment, confusion, happiness, and teenage hormones. At the very least, though, he knew that he'd gotten lucky at least for a few minutes.

* * *

><p>"Are you serious?!" Marcus half-shouted. "My kids have been missing for a fucking day and you can't…"<p>

"Sir, we're trying the best that we can." said the officer on the other end of the phone. "You need to calm down…"

"No, fuck that! You try calming down when your children are missing! I mean, yeah, they're sixteen and they can take care of themselves, but…"

"I'm aware that you're very stressed out, sir, but you have to understand…"

"Oh, for God's sake, forget it!"

His anger finally getting the better of him, Marcus shut the phone off and threw it across the room, causing his company of three to flinch. The moment Marcus and Coyote had heard that Jack and Veronica were missing and let their family and friends know, Fox and Krystal had driven over to try and console them as best as they could. Short answer: they couldn't. Even if, as Marcus said, the twins weren't exactly defenseless innocent children (especially with what Marcus and Krystal had both sensed in Jack over the years), they were lost somewhere in the Lylat System with no good indication of where they were. As their father who loved them more than his own life, he had every right to be worried.

"Marcus," said Krystal. "How about I have a little look for them?"

"Mom, you know how much that takes out of you now."

"For my grandchildren, I'll throw myself in a river. I can do this."

There wasn't much of an option. Marcus had lost his own telepathic abilities years before his kids were born, and they didn't have the time or patience to go looking for another psychic. He sighed and nodded, and Krystal pressed her fingers to her temples. She focused. Thought of Jack and Veronica.

"Where are they…where are they?" she muttered to herself.

A blue aura generated around her hands as she focused, and sure enough, she saw the scene before her.

"I see them." she said.

Fox, Marcus, and Coyote immediately stepped to her side in tense curiosity.

"Where are they?" Coyote asked.

"Forests…a small planet, not far from Venom."

That alone tensed them up. At first, they thought they had landed on Cerinia, which in that case would be perfectly fine since they had family there who could take care of them, but Cerinia was a fair distance away from their intended destination.

"They're safe for now. A few people managed to find them and take care of them." Krystal went on.

A moment of relaxation until…

"Wait…there's something else…something about Jack…"

"What is it?"

"It's…oh my God. It…it can't be!"

"What?!"

The look Krystal gave Marcus was that of pure fear. He had a hard time deciphering just what it meant, but with what Krystal said next, his heart dropped like a stone in a river.

"It's…her."

The worst possible conclusion had just reared its ugly head. He had been so sure that he had finished Kursed off twenty years ago on Cerinia, and not only was she back, but she was going after his son? He held that expression of fear and anger on his face for so long, Coyote thought he had gone into shock until she finally grabbed him by the shoulder.

"We have to go. Now!" she said sternly.

"Right."

The two began making their way to the front door when Fox spoke up.

"Where are you two going?"

"We're gonna go get our kids back, Dad." said Marcus.

"No, sport. Let your mother and I take care of this."

"Dad, I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but you're seventy-five years old. I don't think you can handle something like this!"

Fox clapped a hand down on his son's shoulder and smiled.

"Yeah, I'm seventy-five, but I'm also Fox McCloud. That's gotta give me some credibility. When's the last time you doubted me and your mother?"

"Wha…well, never."

"So don't start doubting us now. We'll go to wherever the kids are and we'll get them back. I promise."

"Dad, you haven't flown an Arwing in twenty years."

Fox smirked and lightly tapped his forehead.

"All the info right in here, sport. Hey, I flew the sucker down into the depths of Venom and took down a giant disembodied head who was threatening to take over the entire system. You don't just forget how to do something like that."

Marcus sighed, but nonetheless smiled. If his father wanted to be a part of something, there was no way to talk him out of it. Then again, even in his senior years, he was quite a sight to behold. His fur was starting to grey, but he was still in shape after this long. Even Peppy Hare who was now in his nineties wasn't the decrepit old man people thought he would be at that age.

"Coyote?" Marcus asked, looking for any sign of disagreement.

"Well…" Coyote said. "It is your dad, after all. I won't say no to the guy who took Andross down twice."

Krystal nodded.

"Then it's settled. Kursed won't be nearly as big of a threat after the thrashing you gave her. Me and your dad? We're unstoppable together."

"Okay." said Marcus. "But get in touch with us as soon as you get there and as soon as you find them. If we don't hear from you, we're coming to help."

"Of course. Alright, Fox. Let's keep not acting our age and go save our grandchildren."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Well, at least this whole thing isn't ENTIRELY a giant OC-fest, right?<strong>_

**SOUNDTRACK SO FAR**

_Meet Jack McCloud_- "Solitary Shell" by Dream Theater

_When bloodsuckers attack- _"Before I Forget" by Slipknot

_Through the woods- _"Damned" from Call of Duty: Black Ops

_A few moments of bonding-_ "Under the Milky Way" by the Church

_Attack in the village- _"Murmaider" by Dethklok

_June's secret revealed- _"Away From the Sun" by 3 Doors Down


	10. 9: Nightmares

CHAPTER NINE

**Nightmares**

The scene before Jack was an absolute enigma. It was a strange combination of dark space and twisting azure clouds drifting all around his body. They wrapped around his arms and legs as he helplessly drifted about, and as they approached his chest, he found it substantially harder to breathe. The clouds pulled him down suddenly, forcing a small yelp out of him until he was set with his feet firmly on solid ground…if one could call it that. He felt nothing beneath his feet, yet as he tested the stability with a few short hops, he was met with resistance despite feeling and seeing nothing.

"Okay, this would be weird were it not obvious dream material." Jack muttered to himself. "Ah, well. Anybody out there?"

His call echoed throughout the empty landscape as the only thing he could hear aside from his own heartbeat, which steadily began to get louder the longer he listened.

But was it actually HIS heartbeat?

A soft hiss. He turned. Nothing. A rush of wind behind him. He turned again. Still nothing. He took one tiny step backward. Then another, and then one more until his right heel tilted downward slightly. Behind him lay a massive circular hole. One more step backward would have sent him toppling into it. He turned toward it and looked downward, still lightly teetering on the edge as he did so. He couldn't see the bottom, but he did notice that the clouds were steadily rising up from it in thick columns and trailing over his shoulders. They brushed against his cheeks, almost sensually stroking them before they began to feel warm…and solid.

Like hands.

He turned, and there she was. Out of shock, Jack took that last tiny step backward, lost his balance, and fell headfirst into the dark and cloudy abyss. He screamed the whole way, and looking above him to see Kursed a mere inch from his face didn't help matters in the slightest. He thrust his hands forward to shove her away. She was too fast; she seized him by the wrists and pulled him against her, her eyes so close that he knew they'd be burned into his retina until the day he died. He thrashed about her grasp but to no avail. She was too strong for him. Here he thought that he'd never have to deal with this monster in his entire life, and yet here she was introducing herself to him the same way as his father: by scaring him half to death.

At last, she released him after they had plummeted what seemed like miles. Jack's speed steadily decreased, reducing to a crawl as he approached the sudden ground. He lightly touched down, and the second he felt the stable surface beneath him, he leapt to his feet and started looking for a way to escape. There was none. The bottom of the pit was no more than a circular room, the walls appearing as the wispy clouds of before and yet feeling as solid as fresh concrete. It was just as smooth as well; when Jack felt around for any sort of ruts he could use, he found nothing. The hole wasn't even small enough for him to try planting his back against one wall and his feet against the other and working his way up that way. He was, without a doubt, trapped.

And here Kursed came again, popping up out of nowhere like a ghost. She didn't move toward him this time but still scared him when she just appeared directly in front of him. At last, he asked what he probably would have asked had he not just fallen down a huge shaft and had the living daylights scared out of him.

"What do you want?!" he yelled.

That shout echoed in the pit for what seemed like several minutes, even after the events that occurred afterward. Kursed raised her hand behind her, a large tunnel burrowing its way through one wall. Jack's first thought was to try and slip past her and make a break for it, but was it really worth the risk? She hadn't jumped him straight away, so he at least knew that she wasn't here just to harm him…right?

She turned away from him and gracefully strode into the tunnel, stopping for a moment to look over her shoulder expectantly. He didn't know why in the world she would expect him to follow her anywhere, let alone into a dark tunnel. By now, Jack had nearly forgotten that this whole thing was a dream, but it felt so real and Kursed had a reputation for messing around with peoples' minds from what his father had told him, so was it really that farfetched?

Come to think of it, Marcus barely told Jack or Veronica a thing about Kursed. Granted, they had been pretty sure they didn't need to know a thing about her anyway. Even when pressed, though, the things Marcus said could be counted up on one hand. She and Krystal had shared a body for a good deal of Krystal's life, she had supernatural abilities that included working her way into others' dreams, she tried to take over Lylat by making use of insect-like creatures called Aparoids, she had no concept of friendship or love, and she did…SOMETHING to Coyote that caused her to become a mindless puppet for her to manipulate.

But alas, Jack finally decided to follow her, albeit slowly and making sure to keep his distance in case she tried something sneaky. She continued walking, taking long and slow strides as she went. The two walked on in silence for several moments before they came across a strange space on the wall. A red cloudy space shaped almost like a television screen. When Jack looked ahead, he saw that there were several of them all neatly lined up, and as Kursed passed by the first one, she pressed her finger against it.

All at once, it changed to a scene through someone's eyes, and Jack stood transfixed on it as he watched the scene play out. To say the least, it was all out chaos. He spotted his father and the legendary bounty hunter Samus Aran clinging to the back of what seemed to be a massive dragon. Seeing Marcus alongside Samus wasn't surprising; the two had been close friends for the longest time. Marcus had of course told Jack a little bit about this little excursion, the dragon they were clinging to being a monster named Ridley. What he didn't tell him was that Kursed had been there taunting the esteemed mercenary.

"**Tell me, Samus. What was it like to watch your mother and father die right in front of you?"**

He didn't get it. Why was Kursed showing him this? What did this have to do with anything? He would have defied his better judgment and asked her, but she was still walking. Jack shook it off and continued, stopping when the next cloud flickered to life.

"**SOMEBODY HELP ME!"**

"**What is there to help, dear? You can't be saved now."**

Coyote O'Donnell screaming for help? For the most part, that was entirely unheard of, but it seemed that her worst fear (that of being buried alive) was being exploited. By? I wonder who. Yet again, why was she showing him this? What did she have to gain from showing Jack a scene of her torturing his mother? Perhaps the answer would be revealed in the next vision as he sidestepped to it like he was at an art gallery.

No. It didn't. It looked more like she had to balance the torturing out by showing a bit of a nineteen-year old Marcus, who looked so furious in this scene that he looked ready to slice a head off. In fact, he had his staff ready to do just that by the looks of it.

"**Come, Marcus! Show me the madness that lies within you!"**

**"I won't show you madness, bitch! I'LL SHOWN YOU IN-FUCKING-SANITY!"**

"**Funny. I always thought madness and insanity were the same thing."**

Marcus let out a loud roar as he charged forward, and the vision ended. Jack could applaud his father for such bravery, but that didn't help what came in the next vision as he stepped up to it.

"**How ironic. You're brought down by exactly what you wanted from her…a loving kiss."**

"**No…no, don't! STOP!"**

"**Too late. Twenty years too late."**

A kiss of death. Somehow Jack knew exactly what was going on even if he couldn't see it. He now got an idea of what Kursed was trying here, and it certainly didn't change her position as an evil abomination in his mind. He turned his head to her with his brow furrowed, now seeing that she had stopped to look at him. Her arched brow was gone, replaced now with a somewhat neutral expression.

"So, what?" Jack asked. "This is the part where you tell me that this is what my parents never wanted me to know about? That you're the reason my dad has panic attacks every once in a while? In all honesty, that doesn't surprise me at all."

She rolled her eyes, the first indication of any emotion in her other than anger. Even then, it didn't help matters much. She motioned him toward the next one, and he noticed that she didn't move away from him this time. Even though he was still a fair distance away from her when he did step toward the next vision, he was still cautious. If there was any word to describe her, it was unpredictable.

The sight in the next vision was quite something. It was Marcus, flying without and sort of assistance with his fur having turned gold in colour. When he spoke, another voice spoke with him that sounded a lot like Coyote. The voice that followed his was Kursed's voice…begging for mercy?

"**You really think you can live with it? Fine! Then take it! TAKE IT ALL!"**

"**Marcus, please! Stop! Take it back! I don't want it anymore! TAKE IT BACK!"**

Marcus unleashed a maelstrom of energy as the vision abruptly ended. Jack turned to say something snarky to Kursed again, but she directed him toward the final vision. Without really anything to lose, he looked. It showed Marcus again, now with his normal fur colour and his back turned to Kursed as she knelt on the ground.

"**I never considered you a part of my family, and now I know I never will. So I can say firmly and without a single doubt…goodbye. I hope I never see you again."**

"**It's not fair…it's not fair! Why did I have to be the one to suffer?! WHY?!"**

The vision ended, and Jack was again left struggling for an answer as to why Kursed was even bothering to show him this. With a given moment of silence, he was able to figure it out. Why Kursed would expect such a thing after what he had seen, however, was totally beyond him.

"Oh, gimme a break. You really think I believe that coming from you?"

Then she moved closer to Jack, sparking up the little bit of fear he had left in him. He had every thought to turn and run away as fast as he could, but her next movement was what really got to him. She held out her arms to him and gave him another expectant look, and after looking at her in a confused manner for several moments, Jack gave her the exact opposite response that she likely wanted.

"…no!" he suddenly exclaimed. "No! You show up after what you did to my family and you expect a hug from me?! Fuck you!"

Kursed gave Jack an almost somber look before she finally spoke. Such a look forced all the pent up anger out of his body in an instant, surprising him so much that he had no response to what she said.

"Jack…please."

And in that moment, Jack felt an unexplained urge within him. He stared at Kursed's open arms, her sad face, and her red yet soft eyes…and he wanted to be there. Suddenly the things he'd been told about her and the things she'd shown him no longer mattered. He questioned how such a thing was possible and let panicked thoughts run through his mind the longer he refused to flee. To his own surprise, he at last obliged.

As Kursed slowly and gently wrapped her arms around him, Jack felt an unnatural warmth well up inside him, and he felt so dirty because of it. He shouldn't have felt so comfortable in her embrace. It made him feel like all of the things she'd done and the people she'd hurt didn't matter. But here they were, hugging like they were as close as family could be. After all, that's what she was, right? Part of his family.

Part of his family that had attempted genocide and was responsible for the presumed permanent death of his mother. When that thought came rushing in, he began to consider pushing her off when he felt something wet on his shoulder. He started to panic, thinking she was digging into him and drawing blood since she was no stranger to sneak attacks like that, but then he heard a light sniff. He parted from her not enough to break the hug, but just enough that he could see her face.

Tears. She was crying. Was she that happy to hold her nephew?

"…why are you here?" he asked.

She cracked a light half-smile before disappearing, the dark tunnel around Jack illuminated by a column of light that engulfed the helpless Jack. He shielded his eyes as he looked up, finding himself steadily ascending as Kursed answered him.

"You'll find out."

* * *

><p>"I gotta hand it to you, kid," Raymond muttered to himself as he tiptoed across the grass. "You've done the impossible. You've actually managed to intimidate me a little bit."<p>

He'd consider just finishing the kid off right there in front of June to hopefully teach her a lesson, but she'd gotten so attached to Jack that she'd probably chase him to the edge of the universe if he did anything, and the universe didn't even have an edge. But there Jack was, sleeping and totally vulnerable. Raymond smirked down at him and licked his fangs. Turning him wasn't good enough. No. Not nearly good enough.

"I'd tell you this wouldn't hurt," he said as though Jack would hear him. "But let's face it. I was born to tear you to pieces, Jack McCloud."

"You and your corny catchphrases, Raymond."

Raymond froze in place just as June revealed herself, sitting up from her spot beside Jack. She knew he'd try something like this, so she felt the need to take a few special precautions just to be safe. He didn't know whether to scowl or give his trademark salacious smile. After heavy consideration (and in June's opinion, poor analysis of the situation at hand), he chose the latter.

"You're looking lovely as ever."

"Don't get smart with me. If I see you get anywhere near him again, I swear to God. I will rip your head clean off."

And in came the former expression. He couldn't believe how soft she had gotten. Granted, she'd always been soft, but this was just going way too far.

"Okay, seriously. Why are you getting so attached to him? Not just him, but Halen and Veronica, too."

"Hey, you were the one trying to get at her when she was hurt."

"…okay, yes. Halen showed up and kept an eye on me before I could do anything."

"How did you even get attacked by a Breather, anyway?"

"You know the young ones. They'll do anything if it makes them feel good."

"Sounds like someone else I know."

"Hilarious. Believe me, though; I'd have that girl on her knees in front of me if Halen hadn't shown up."

"He doesn't trust you, and neither does Jack. That's why you came after him, isn't it? …no, I get it. You're jealous, is that it?"

Raymond came very near to laughing when June's words rang in his ears. Truth be told, he wanted to beat Jack within an inch of his life for this and make June watch, but then again, he knew she could take whatever he had and throw it right back at him.

"Jealous of this little punk?" he finally said. "Are you serious? Have you seen the way he acts? He's a total coward."

"Well, I certainly like him a lot more than I like you right now. The only reason you came after him first is because you're mad I found someone better than you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Better! Than! You! Gee, who to pick? A shy adorable boy that could use a little push out the door or some stuck-up idiot with an entitlement complex about fucking his own cousin?! Ooo, tough!"

…sorry you had to see that.

What a coincidence that that was what got Jack to stir. The two froze and uttered no sound until they were sure he wasn't going to wake up, then fixed their glares on each other yet again. Raymond grew more irritated and impatient by the minute, and even though he understood why, it didn't make it any less aggravating.

"Okay, look." he said. "Think about it logically for a minute. What are you trying to accomplish here? If you're just trying to get them off the planet, I can call that admirable, but it's pointless. Your mother won't let them leave so long as they aren't one of us. You know that, don't you?"

"I do know that. That's why I'm going to protect them from her and the rest of the family as much as I can."

"So you're saying you'll throw your family away over some random kids you found in the forest? You think they're more important than your family?"

June thought she had the entire thing figured out until he said that. Now, she was stuck. How could she be stuck on something like that? Her family never brought her any happiness, so why wasn't she willing to turn her back on them?

"Ah." said Raymond, nonchalantly pointing at her with a triumphant smirk on his face. "See? You're unwilling. Tell you what: I'll turn him into one of us and you can have him and me. C'mon, it'd be great for ma…"

"Utter one more syllable and I'll fucking kill you."

Raymond scoffed and casually threw up his arms in defeat.

"Fine. But what do you think is going to happen to him? If I don't kill him, you can bet your ass your mother will. She wants you back, June. Let's just stop all this garbage and go back to her, alright?"

"No. She thinks she knows what's best for me, but she doesn't."

"More crap the McCloud kid's been shooting into you, I see."

"You know, I think you'd actually see why I like him and his sister so much if you'd just give them a chance."

"You serious?"

"Just do it, alright?"

She realized halfway through her request that he'd need more convincing from her than that, and while it pained her to do so, she lightly tossed her hair back and stretched seductively.

"I mean, you don't have to, but if you did, I'd be very grateful. You'd definitely be up for a nice reward."

Hook, line, and sinker. It sickened her that he went for it so easily as she watched him crack a smile, but he was at the very least listening to her for once.

"You drive a hard bargain, love," he sighed. "But I suppose I can give it a try. What's the worst that could happen?"

"Well, you kind of already said it, but thank you nonetheless."

"Doesn't mean I'm gonna get along with him, though."

As if on cue, Jack woke with a start, startling the both of them with his sudden shouts. The second Jack managed to calm himself down at least a little bit, June was crouching by his side.

"Jack, what's the matter?"

"Nothin'….oh, man, I just had the most fucked up dream…wait, where you…sleeping next to me?"

Raymond rolled his eyes and groaned in disgust while June offered forth a warm smile as she lightly tapped Jack's forehead.

"Well, you make a nice snuggle buddy. That can't be denied."

"…'snuggle buddy'?"

No one could say anything more before Veronica and Aaron came dashing around the corner.

"Is everything okay?!" Veronica half-shouted.

"Yeah, we're fine." said Raymond. "Your baby brother here just had a bad dream is all."

"He's older than me."

"I thought you were twins."

"We are, but he popped out first."

Aaron stepped forward with two shotguns in his hands, tossing one to Jack and the other to Raymond.

"I trust you know how to use one of those things." he said.

"It's a gun, bro." Raymond said with a smirk. "You aim and you shoot. How hard can it be?"

"Y'know, Jack said the same thing and had trouble with the recoil."

"Yeah, great, I'm the asshole again…"

Jack hopped to his feet and walked over to Veronica the moment he saw her. After a quick inspection, he could conclude that she'd made a full recovery from the incident the previous day. She had a few burn marks showing and there were still a few flecks of dried blood on her fur, but she was otherwise up and raring to go like the girl Jack knew.

"Worried about me?" she asked.

"I'm your brother. I'm allowed, aren't I?"

"Yeah, but don't be. I'm fine. Ray really worked some magic on me."

Jack at first wasn't sure why she'd raised her voice to say that last bit, and nearly gagged when he saw Raymond look over at her and give her a sly wink in response. She smiled, Jack noticing how fake it looked before she turned back to him once she looked away.

"Ray helped out for like a minute and then Aaron took over."

"What for? You finally get that Ray's a giant dickwad?"

"Actually, yeah. Quite frankly, he's a bit of a pervert, too. He kept giving me all these weird looks and insisted that he needed to take my shirt off. I might be jumping to conclusions here, but I swear to God, I thought he was gonna rape me or something."

Jack clapped his hand down on his sister's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry. He tries something like that again and I'll pop one right in his smug face."

"Your fist or a bullet?"

"Still trying to decide on that one. I'll get back to you."

"How about you? You took a really nasty bite from that Breather."

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Tell you the truth, I actually forgot it happened. June patched me up pretty quickly."

"And apparently you two were bathing together?"

Jack flinched and directed a venomous glare toward Aaron. Aaron himself stopped in mid-speech to look over when he felt a strange fear for his life, and when he saw Jack's face, he stifled a laugh and lowered his face into his palm.

"I told that son of a bitch not to tell anyone…" he growled to himself.

"Hey, come on, it's fine. I could totally see you getting with June."

"When she's a couple years older than me?"

"Okay, two things. One: the age of consent on Corneria and even a lot of parts of Earth is 16. Second, referring back to the Earth thing, Shakespeare was eighteen when he got married to a twenty-six year old woman. I think you're good, bro."

Once Aaron had regained his composure after the little crack concerning Jack and Veronica, he loaded a magazine into the machine gun he'd taken from the weapons cache.

"June. You still remember where the Black Web is?"

"Of course." said June.

"Good. That's where we're headed. Saddle up, lads and lasses. We're heading out."

And then Raymond opened his mouth and started whining again. To Jack, June, and even Aaron and Veronica now, this wasn't such a surprise anymore.

"Uh, Aaron, I really hate to be the big whiner of the group or anything, but do you even know what's in the Black Web?"  
>"Not a clue. Why? Do you?"<p>

"No, but I think it's still a tad too risky to just go running into uncharted territory. Especially with a name like that, in my opinion."

"Dude, this entire planet is uncharted territory to us. A corny name isn't going to keep me away from it. Why are you so resistant to going there all of a sudden?"

Of course June knew perfectly well why, but as much as she hated to admit it, Raymond was playing it off exceedingly well.

"Easy: I know where the leader's den is."

"And you know that how?"

"What do you think I was doing before you guys came and picked me up? …get that smirk off your face, McCloud. You wanna be considered a man? Start acting like one."

That didn't stop Jack from keep his dirty joke stuck in his head as he tried hard not to laugh. It was a lot harder than it looked; the guy was pretty much gift-wrapping these jokes for him.

"Anyway," Raymond continued. "Ain't that worthwhile thought? Sticking it to the person who started the whole thing?"

"The leader can kiss my ass and wait." said Aaron. "I'm not leaving my squad hanging even if we can get this whole shebang done faster."

"Okay, seriously. Give me one good reason going to the Black Web is a better idea."

"I can give you three. One: my own morality and yours if you were a decent guy, which you aren't by the sound of it. Two: extra team members are gonna make this whole thing a lot easier, especially with the kinda stuff Tank's got. Three: I know this bitch is trying to get to me and make me feel powerless by trying to axe off my squad mates, but I'm not gonna give him or her or it the satisfaction."

"We don't have time for them, Aaron!"

"THEN MAKE TIME, RAYMOND!"

With Aaron's sudden shout, it was clear that no one was going to change his mind about this. Not that Jack or Veronica wanted to, anyway (see Aaron's above reasons for going to the Black Web for reference in conjunction with him freaking out about it). Personally, it made Jack feel good that someone was finally sticking it to Raymond like this and calling him out for being a selfish jackass. Raymond himself, however, seemed more insulted than he really had any right to be.

"So you're gonna throw away your potential victory for a couple of grunts, is that it?"

"What did you just say?!"

With how close Aaron got, it was a wonder they hadn't started brawling right then and there. Aaron was utterly furious and he wanted Raymond to know that.

"Listen to me, you snotty sack a' shit." he seethed, jabbing his finger into Raymond's shoulder. "They are not just a couple of grunts, okay? They're my friends. We've been through a ton of shit together that I ain't gonna forget anytime soon, and yeah. I realize that comradery might not be important to a certain someone here, but it's sure as hell important to the rest of us! I am going to go to that fucking Black Web and get my squad mates out of trouble, and you are not gonna stop me!"

You wouldn't expect Raymond to get all smug again after being talked down to and intimidated like that, but he somehow still had it in him. In truth, June feared he'd break his promise to her just for vanity's sake.

"Look at you being all high and mighty, you fuckin' skinner."

"Alright, you know what? That's it. You're done."

"The hell's that supposed to mean?"

"It means gimme that gun."

He didn't even wait for Raymond to hand the gun over. Aaron wrenched it out of his hands and tossed it to Veronica. Raymond looked at the human soldier with his mouth open in disgust and shock, getting a look of venom in return.

"Have it your way. Stay here and be useless or go out there and get your guts ripped out for all I care. If you wanna come and help us later, feel free. Jack. Ronnie. June. Let's go."

And with that, the four were off, June stopping for a moment to give the still-dumbfounded Raymond a sort of cocky smirk.

"Hey, in all honesty, you were asking for it."

"How does he…does he know who he's fucking with?!"

"Some random bitchy guy for all he knows. You know where to find us if you have a change of heart. For your own sake, I really hope you do."

* * *

><p>Even with the greenhouse now a fair distance behind them, the tension was still there with Aaron retaining the same frustrated expression he had when confronting Raymond. None of his three acquaintances said anything to him or each other for fear it would irritate him any further.<p>

Hey, he had a machine gun. That was a good enough reason all on its own. It was also a good enough reason for Aaron to lead the pack, looking over at June occasionally to make sure that they were going the right way as she took up the rear. The threat of what waited for them in the Black Web was still lingering over them, but what could be done? They certainly weren't going to head back to the greenhouse after what had just happened.

Eventually getting sick of the silence after they passed by the fuel station, Veronica quickened her pace and sidled up next to Aaron. When he kept his stern expression on didn't look at her, she figured this was only one route to take, and she took it. Such was the way of Veronica McCloud.

"So am I risking getting my head blasted off by saying that outburst was kinda forced?"

Luckily no. She got that same smile that she adored from him.

"Nah. It kinda was, but you gotta admit. Someone had to put that guy in his place, and it was either gonna be me or Jack."

"I agree. Honestly, what in the world did I see in that guy?"

"He's pretty good-looking…and that's about it. Sour personality, even whinier than a lot of girls I know, piss poor morality. Really, he just lacks everything that can make someone a decent person."

Veronica smiled in response, and then allowed for the moment to get sentimental. She reached across to his other shoulder and pressed herself against his side. An awkward embrace, but at the very least comforting.

"Sorry about Wiz and Vanessa." the young vulpine said. "I know that doesn't help much, but…"

"Are you kidding? Just you guys being here and helping me is all the help I need. Besides, June said there's a way to fix it, and that's good enough for me."

Seeing his two comrades embrace made Jack crack a small smile, and as soon as June noticed, she smirked before playfully nipping him on the ear.

"Hey, what the…?!" Jack yelped, leaping away from her as she began laughing.

"I thought you liked it when I bite you."

"Yeah, when I know it's coming! Jeez, lady!"

"Sorry. No more surprise nips."

They continued in silence for a few more minutes, Jack still smiling about Veronica's little display of affection and still shuddering with June's more sudden one, admittedly more disturbing than it should have. As they kept moving, the little confrontation back at the greenhouse kept nagging in the back of Jack's head. So did another thing that he didn't dare to talk about, but at least this one was worth talking about.

"I know this might be a weird question to ask," he started. "but…do you know Raymond?"

"No." replied June rather suddenly. "Why do you ask?"

"Just the way you were looking at him sometimes, that's all. Seemed kinda…shocked."

She gave him the sly smile that always sent shivers up his spine but oddly comforted him at the same time.

"It was that judging bit of me flaring. I looked at him and figured he had to be the biggest douche this side of Solar, and lo and behold. I was right. Kinda like how I looked at you and decided you'd be someone I'd be willing to hook up with."

"Aaaand you made it weird."

"Who's the one who volunteered to get bitten by a vampire again?"

"…touché."

All at once, June snapped to attention and called ahead.

"We're here!"

She directed her three comrades toward a malformed bit of undergrowth, and pushing it out of the way revealed a wide and deep pit, cobwebs littering its diameter.

"Jeez, I'm havin' déjà vu here…" Jack muttered.

"What's that?" Aaron asked.

"Nothing, just mumbling to myself. Sooooo…how are we getting down there?"

"I…seem to have not completely thought this through."

June and Veronica, as much as they liked Aaron and as much as they didn't want his anger to relapse after the situation with Raymond, threw up their arms and sighed.

"Seriously?" said Veronica. "Now what?"

Before anyone could say anything or even think of doing so, a resounding roar echoed through the woods. All four jumped in fright and spun around, keeping their guns aimed at anywhere they believed the source would jump out from.

"That didn't sound like a Breather…" Jack said.

"It was." said Aaron. "Remember how I said that Breathers evolve really fast?"

"Yeah, but they're snakes. What, do they develop legs when they evolve?"

The roar came yet again, this time even closer than before. Accompanying it was another loud echo that sounded a lot like wings beating against the air.

"Jack," started Veronica. "That doesn't sound like a snake."

And it certainly didn't look like one when it came barreling down from the treetops with its stained fangs bared and its talons flexed. As Jack and Veronica got a split second to look at it, they noticed its glowing red eyes, and having seen them, they analyzed its roar. It sounded familiar. Very familiar. Familiar as in it sounded exactly like whatever had attacked them when they were on the shuttle to Sauria.

The familiarity of this monstrous bat-like creature didn't matter. Not nearly as much as the screaming Veronica being carried off by it.

"Damn it!" Jack shouted as though the beast would listen. "Let her go!"

"Jack!" Aaron shouted.

As Jack started running up the trunk of a fallen tree nearby, he thought that he had enough height to reach the winged Breather and pull Veronica out of its grasp. He was right, but what he wasn't counting on was another winged Breather swerving in out of nowhere, its rider seizing Jack by the throat in mid-air.

"No!" he rasped. "Let me go!"

It was only then that Jack noticed the feminine shape of the arm in combination with the scar on the wrist, and when he turned his head to look his captor in the eyes, he knew that things would only go south from here.

"Pleasure to see you again, my little friend." Sabrina hissed.

As Jack stared into Veronica's terrified eyes as she was taken further and further away, he felt his heart sink like a rock. As her brother, it was his job to protect her from anything that would try to harm her even if she was far braver than he'd ever be, and yet here he was absolutely powerless as she was taken away from him, growing evermore furious when he saw Albert smirking back at him as he and his Breather dragged Veronica away.

"Oh, don't you worry about your sister." giggled Sabrina as she menacingly licked her bared fangs. "We'll take good care of her."

There was a faint glimmer of hope for Jack as June, now completely indifferent to the fact that she'd stun Aaron with what she was about to do next, ran up the nearest tree and vaulted herself toward them with her hand outstretched. Sabrina glared at the traitorous Halfling, looked at the terrified Jack, then looked at the massive pit beneath them, then back at Jack, then back at June for one last evil grin.

"You want him, you snot-nosed little brat?!" she hollered.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!" June screamed.

"Too late! GO GET HIM!"

And with one simple toss, Sabrina sent Jack into a freefall, and the déjà vu he'd experienced just seeing the entrance to the Black Web grew worse as he fell headfirst into it, his screams as the only accompanying sound.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Well, he's up shit creek without a paddle, eh? Anyhow, surprised with the whole revelation about Raymond? No? You saw that coming? Damn it...oh, well. Dramatic irony for the win, right? You know what else is ironic? That I'm getting more work done on these stories in school than I did when I had a whole month off. You know what ELSE else is ironic?! That Alanis Morissette wrote a song called "Ironic" listing off things she considered examples of irony but none of them were! AND YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE ELSE ELSE?!<strong>_

**_...I might need some help mentally. =P_**

**SOUNDTRACK SO FAR**

_Meet Jack McCloud_- "Solitary Shell" by Dream Theater

_When bloodsuckers attack- _"Before I Forget" by Slipknot

_Through the woods- _"Damned" from Call of Duty: Black Ops

_A few moments of bonding-_ "Under the Milky Way" by the Church

_Attack in the village- _"Murmaider" by Dethklok

_June's secret revealed- _"Away From the Sun" by 3 Doors Down

_Memories of Kursed- _"Parabola"by Tool


	11. 10: The Black Web

CHAPTER TEN

**The Black Web**

You know that weird sensation you get in the pit of your stomach when you fall against your will? Jack certainly did after he'd fallen what felt like fifty feet straight down through the pitch black chasm, his flailing arms and legs brushing against something stringy and somewhat sticky as he did so. By then, he was more sick to his stomach than terrified, and when something finally caught him by the middle, he wretched and let loose. The heavy splat echoed from a few feet below him, indicating that he wasn't far from the bottom. That alone was enough to relief him, combined with the abdominal relaxation one receives when they finally get the spew out of their system.

But just what had caught him?

He attempted to turn over and was met with a great amount of resistance, struggling for a brief moment before he managed to break free of whatever was holding him, only to get stuck again when he wound up on his back.

"What the hell's going on…wait a second."

He brushed the surface with his hand. His hand got stuck. Not nearly enough that he wasn't able to pull it free, but enough to leave a light bit of residue on his palm. He clenched his hand and unclenched it. Little particles of it remained on his fingertips, and as his eyes started to adjust to the pitch blackness, he could make out a colour and composure. The residue was thin and silvery, and now that he could get a proper feel for its texture, Jack felt a tinge of familiarity. He remembered walking through droves of this material back on Corneria and cringing every time it happened.

Webbing.

Just as this conclusion arrived in his conscious mind, one of the thicker strands lowered slightly as additional weight was applied. Then another, and another, and another one after that until Jack started to hear scurrying sounds from somewhere in the darkness. He began to sweat and felt another fit of nausea in the pit of his stomach, and then a hiss rang out from a short distance above him. He swivelled his head upward, and it took every ounce of courage possible to stop himself from screaming at this horrible sight.

Spiders. Giant black and red spiders weaving their way through the strands of webbing, all clicking their fangs together and leering at their prey with each of their eight pulsating eyes.

"Oh, no no no no. Not spiders! For the love of God, not spiders!"

He began thrashing about, only seeming to tighten his bonds and make his arachnid captors evermore provoked. Though they slowed their pace as they closed in on Jack (either to confirm this was indeed prey or to build up the tension and revel in Jack's fear), they never once took their eyes off of him. They kept staring, their vision boring into the young Cornerian and raising his heartbeat with every fraction of a second.

Jack already hated spiders for reasons he didn't need to explain to anyone, and now that he was thirty seconds away from getting torn to pieces by a huge group of them.

"No…that's not gonna happen!" he growled to himself. "I'm gonna get outta here and I'm gonna save Ron! Just gotta…"

His newfound fury simply wasn't enough to break the bond, but in the split second that the closest spider wasted in approaching him, everything happened so quickly that it wasn't until after Jack found himself hitting the ground that he realized what happened. Right when the spider had come close enough, a gunshot had rung out, and out of the corner of his eye, Jack had seen a sparks along one wall and then on the opposite.

The ricocheting object (which Jack could easily assume was a bullet) had then bounced up at just the right angle that it severed one of the strands. Said strand had been just the right one to collapse the section of the web Jack was ensnared in, and luckily for him, the spiders had retreated the second the shot had rang out. Jack could only assume they had very sensitive hearing, but he was too preoccupied with trying to fight the pain of the impact to really care.

"Fuckin' spiders crawlin' all over the Goddamn place. Hey!" called a lightly Spanish-accented voice. "You okay over there, hermano?!"

Just what Jack had hoped for, though he certainly wasn't planning on meeting Aaron's squad like this. Once he had coughed enough dust out of his mouth, he responded.

"Y-yeah…kinda…not really…okay, I'm freaking out over here, man! What do you think?!"

"Just hold tight! We'll be right there!"

Jack kept his eyes fixed upward, ready to get up and break into a run for the nearest cover if he caught sight of the spiders. When he saw and heard movement, he made the move and ducked out of sight. He stayed perfectly still as the sounds grew louder, another cool sweat forming and indicating fear. Said fear burst into panic when something touched his shoulder, but when he spun around with his fist poised to strike…

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, man!" said the young Hispanic man with a pair of machetes on his belt and a sniper rifle in his hand. "We're here to help!"

"Anyway to signal that WITHOUT scaring me half to death?" Jack thought sourly before he got a good look at the man's two companions.

The second soldier was a canine wearing a tattered cowboy-style fedora and matching leather holsters occupied by shining silver revolvers. As if that wasn't enough, there was a shotgun anchored on his shoulder and a batch of grenades jutting out of the satchel on his lower back. Along his face and neck were several scars, and in his eyes was a look of general disinterest in what was going on. A look that basically said that he thought he was too cool to care.

The other man was barely a man at all. More like a hulking mass of robotic parts. Jack could make out bits of skin, mainly on his upper arms, the bottom half of his face, and enough of the top half to make out his right eye. This guy was either an android or a human who got blown to bits in one of his last battles. Either way, it would also explain how he was able to carry a minigun with such ease.

As he got a better look at the three soldiers, he jumped to a fairly obvious conclusion.

"You guys wouldn't happen to know Aaron Halen, would you?" he asked.

"Big shot with the gimpy leg?" asked the one in the fedora. "Ya think?"

The Hispanic soldier rolled his eyes and offered his hand to Jack.

"He means yes." he said as Jack completed the gesture. "We're the Cornerian Research and Reconnaissance Squad…well, part of it, anyway. I'm Jose, the big guy is Tank, and the jackass with an overcompensating fashion sense is Hunter."

"Said jackass still having the ability to hear, pal." said Hunter with a sneer before he turned to Jack. "You a local or somethin'?"

Jack was about to answer when he heard the hiss of the spiders as they started to scurry after him. They laid their eyes on the additional three targets, clicking their fangs furiously after they'd failed to capture the three for the entire time they'd been in their web.

"You guys know what you're doing here, right?!" Jack panicked.

"You bet your ass we do, man!" called Jose. "Hunter! Throw the kid your shotgun!"

Hunter rolled his eyes and wondered when Jose became the leader, but callously tossed the gun Jack's way regardless.

"Fine." he growled. "I like my girls here better, anyway. Tank! You're the heavy guy! Start puttin' that sucker to good use!"

"Alright, boys!" Jose shouted. "Weapons free! Drop every last one of this motherfuckers!"

The lead flew as the spiders dropped down and began advancing quickly, snapping their fangs as they came closer. Once they came within melee distance, Jose rushed forward and drew his machetes, one of which found itself buried in the spider's forehead. As another bared its fangs from behind him, he leapt up and deliver a sharp drop kick and aimed a perfect shot from his rifle.

"It's all like WHOA, BITCH!" he cheered. "GET OUT THA' WAY! GET OUT THA' WAY, BITCH, GET OUT THA' WAY…I'm havin' way too much fun, aren't I?"

"Gee, ya think?" Hunter scoffed.

Despite his derision, Hunter was still proving himself to be a fairly competent gunslinger. He had brilliant aim and just as brilliant reflexes as he popped round after round into the arachnid monsters, emptying the cylinder and reloading it at lightning speed whenever he needed to.

"Burn, baby, burn." he said to himself between stylish shots behind his back without looking.

As for Tank, not a single thing could touch him as he backed himself up against the closest wall and letting his minigun rip through every eight-legged freak he could see. Even the few of them that had the good sense to try and flee couldn't escape from the torrent of bullets. Even as they began to scale the walls, Tank promptly aimed high and blew round after round into them until they uselessly fell. Such carnage normally warranted some sort of reaction whether it be anger, depression, or pure determination. Tank had none of those. No such response either visually or verbally.

In fact, that was something that Jack had only just now noticed: Tank hadn't said a single word to anyone despite having several chances to blurt out something snarky at Hunter, or even Jack himself. He didn't seem incapable of speech (proven when he growled to himself as one spider successfully evaded him for a few seconds), but not a single proper word came out of his mouth.

To be honest, Jack didn't really care. The three weren't attacking him, and that was all he truly cared about at this particular moment.

"Watch it, kid!" Hunter suddenly hollered.

Jack hadn't been paying attention and turned just in time to see a spider rearing its legs over him as it prepared to strike. It didn't get the chance when Jose rushed it and planted both machetes into its underside, tearing them in opposite directions and effectively bisecting the creature. Jack took a moment to catch his breath before giving a nervous thumbs-up to Jose.

"Gotta keep that head on a swivel, hermano." the Hispanic solider said sternly. "Don't want these suckers sneaking up on ya."

"It didn't even sneak up on him." Hunter spat. "You could honestly hear these things coming from a mile away."

"Dude, cut him a break. He's just a kid."

"He may be a kid, but that doesn't mean they're gonna take it easy on him, either! Now stop gawking and start throwing lead!"

Just enough belittlement to spark a hint of anger in Jack. Just enough anger to spark a hint of determination. A spider dropping at just the right time sparked…well, Jack shooting it in the face. He looked over his shoulder to see if Hunter had paid any attention, but no. The cowboy show-off kept doing his own thing and acting too cool for his own good.

"Wait a second, why the hell do I need that asshole's approval all of a sudden?!" he thought. "I mean, jeez! He's a bigger ass than Falco can be sometimes, and he's not even half as cool!"

The soldiers continued to outshine him as more and more spiders poured in from holes in the walls. Tank gritted his teeth and aimed high, only for his bullet belt to run out. He growled to himself and started to load up another one, Jose and Jack making sure to keep him covered as he did so.

"Hunter, get over here and help us, man!" Jose yelled.

Hunter for whatever reason kept firing away in all his stylish glory, looking over his shoulder and giving the three a simple sneer before he went back to his business.

"What is with this pendaho, man…" Jose growled.

"So he does that a lot?" Jack asked.

"A lot? Every fuckin' time, man. He's out for himself and nobody else and it honestly makes me wanna put a bullet right up his ass. Four and five o'clock!"

"Ten and eight!"

They fired in the directions they called to each other and kept calling them out, blowing some of the legs off this spider and blinding that one. Slicing this one across the face when it got too close and even getting a running start and dropkicking that one into a wall. Finally, Tank fully fed the bullet belt into his minigun and stood. Jack flinched when the cyborg behemoth looked at him, but eased his mind when said cyborg behemoth smiled and gave him a thumbs-up before revving up his gun and unleashing hell once again.

"Well, I got the big guy on my side." Jack thought. "At least I got that going for me."

He spun around and fired another blast into an approaching spider, and as he finally got a chance to breathe, he found himself panting. Perhaps he was still tired from getting tossed down a dark shaft or having the emotional weight of his sister getting kidnapped, but he couldn't take much more of this onslaught.

Luckily, he wasn't the only one.

"So we're all still good on the escape route, right?" Hunter called. "I ain't in the fuckin' mood to go looking for another one, especially not with these freakers chasing us down."

"Haven't got much of a choice…" Jose muttered before raising his voice. "Alright, fellas! Let's fall back! Everybody follow me!"

Jack didn't waste a second in dashing after Jose, just behind Hunter and just in front of Tank, who had his minigun trained backward. He'd need to; the spiders had no intention of letting their potential prey get away and gave chase, scurrying as fast as their eight legs would carry them. Jack was already starting to panic, stumbling several times as he dashed along the craggy ground. When he finally tripped, Tank reached forward and pulled him to his feet, giving him a light push to keep him going.

"Keep going!" Jose shouted. "We're almost there!"

The spiders may not have been tiring, but they clearly weren't able to keep up once the four started pumping their legs even harder. They finally exited the tunnel that looked like it had been crudely dug out not long ago and entered into another cavern. To Jack's delight, he could see light at the very top. To his dismay, the spiders were on their way through the tunnel and were starting to gain.

Thankfully, Tank and Jose seemed to have this in mind as they drew handfuls of grenades, pulling out the pins and throwing each of them into the tunnel. As they detonated, not only did it send pieces of shrapnel shooting into the spiders and shredding them limb from limb, but it blew chunks of the tunnel's ceiling off and sent a chain reaction through it, steadily but surely collapsing the exit and crushing whatever was still inside.

With the monstrous creatures finally dealt with, the four let the silence sink in and took a few moments to breathe. Jose looked up at his three companions and started to laugh as the excitement of the chase got to his head. Hunter merely rolled his eyes and reloaded his revolvers and Tank stretched out his arms and legs.

Jack meanwhile kept his eyes fixed upward. Thank God. A way out, and hopefully more backup as his mind shifted back to Veronica's peril. Images flashed through his mind of what Albert and Sabrina might have been doing to her. It made him angry, especially with the thought of Albert and Sabrina mocking him for his failure. The thought made him want to break their faces. Shatter their teeth.

As unnatural as it was for him to think such a thing, it made him want to kill something.

"Oh, shit, LOOK OUT!" Jose shouted.

Either as a last ditch attempt to claim its desired prey or possibly to avenge its slain brethren, one last spider leapt downward from its hiding place on the ceiling with its fangs poised to dig into to whichever morsel it reached first. As fate would have it, it never even made it to the ground as Jack spun around just in time and stretched out his hand.

The killing intent took full form as the spider was suspended in mid-air, helplessly writhing about as Jack raised his other hand. He heard strange whispers in his ears, egging him on. Telling him to show it no mercy. He had no such intention. He clenched down his other hand. The spider shrieked as it felt intense pressure on each of its limbs, and it stared at Jack in what actually seemed like fear as the young McCloud grew an evil and sadistic smile on his face.

He revelled in this beast's suffering, and now he was ready to finish it. Jack swung his arms apart, and whatever force it was that held the spider ripped its eight legs clean off. Jack seized it again, and after turning it upside down, he thrust his arms downward. The spider fell the same way, and as its head struck the stone ground, what remained of its limbs sporadically twitched until it stopped moving altogether. Satisfied, Jack let the corpse drop…before he regained his senses and looked down at himself in horror.

"W-what the fuck did I just do?!"

The whispers, the sudden anger, the desire to destroy something beautiful or hideous. It was pure monstrosity and it had come from him. Good God…had Kursed done something to him? Or was being stuck on an uncharted planet finally getting to him and he was going completely insane?

"Uhh…" Jose started. "…well…Ermac wins! Flawless victory! FATALITY!"

"Um…my name's Jack."

"Y'know, I thought I was forgetting to ask you somethin'. So, uh, you wanna explain how you can do shit like that?"

"No clue…which is also the hint that I don't wanna talk about it."

"Gotcha…hey, chill out, man."

Jack flinched as Jose patted him on the back. He was surprised with how friendly this soldier was being, especially when his two comrades were anything but.

"Don't let something like that get to you." Jose said. "Sure, you slaughtered it, but it's not like you didn't have every right to. You got any idea how many people have gotten tossed down here and fed to those things?"

"Awesome…so the way out? It's here?"

"It should be. Tank, you wanna help me look around?"

Tank nodded and laid his minigun down and joined Jose in search around the room. Jack meanwhile sat down on a protruding rock, thinking about what had just transpired before Hunter walked up to him with his hand out.

"I'll be taking my shotgun back now, thank you very much."

Jack knit his brow, but still handed Hunter his gun back. He kept looking at the wannabe cowboy as he holstered the gun, trying to figure out just what this guy's problem was. Hunter seemed to have grossly misinterpreted the stare as some form of longing for approval or endearment, and what a time for him to act like a jerk again.

"If you're expecting me to go 'that'll do, sport' or something like that, you can forget it."

"Actually, I was expecting you to say exactly what you just said. Bravo for meeting my expectations."

Hunter smirked. The closest thing to a smile Jack had seen from him so far, and likely the most he would get.

"Snarky, ain't ya? Y'know, as much as I don't enjoy your attitude, I gotta say it's punks like you that make the universe a bit more interesting. Gets me some well-deserved exercise if you catch my drift."

It was too easy.

"That's what she said." Jack said with a smirk.

One could probably hear Jose laughing from a mile away. Jack was surprised that even Tank stifled a laugh at his honestly juvenile joke. Hunter was less impressed.

"What, you tough it out for one measly fight and you think you're hot shit, do ya?" he said. "I'd probably punch you right now if you wouldn't start crying."

And right Jack went to being angry again, this time not bothering to joke around.

"Dude, do I look like I'm in the mood for that right now? I just fell like a couple dozen feet into a nest of mutated spiders, for God's sake."

"We've been stuck down here for at least three days trying to dig our way out. Quit your whining unless you want a time-out or something."

"A: I'm sixteen. B: you're not my dad, you douche."

"Ooo, scary. Nothing like an emo kid calling up his old man to teach the big bully a lesson."

"Not when said old man was once the leader of Star Fox, or when as we've seen I could probably just tear you apart myself. I won't, but I can."

Hunter took a step back with a look of worry, and only now did Jack notice that it was because his right hand seemed to glowing a little bit as he balled it into a fist. When he released the pressure, the glow faded and left both Jack and Hunter to wonder what had happened. The latter shook it off in an instant and went right back to talking down to the former.

"Don't be merciful, buddy boy." he said, though oddly in a softer tone than before. "It ain't gonna help you again those fuckin' bloodsuckers up there."

"I noticed. So what were those spiders supposed to be, anyway?"

Jose looked over his shoulder as he and Tank were brushing their hands against the wall, likely looking for ruts to use for climbing.

"Breathers, hermano." he said. "Really fucked up guys workin' for the Nosferats that just scurry around and tear guys like us to pieces. You must've seen some of 'em running around upstairs, right?"

"Yeah, but they weren't exactly properly endowed in terms of limbs."

"They evolve pretty damn quick. Let 'em get to stage three and you'll have a hell of a time trying to mow 'em down."

He turned his attention back to the wall and let up a loud "Aha!" when he felt just what he was looking for. He whipped out a flashlight and scanned the cone of vision up the wall, taking note of the numerous other ruts that formed an irregular yet complete path to the top.

"This oughta be it." he said. "You ever gone rock-climbing, Jack?"

"Once." Jack replied. "In like the eighth grade."

"Okay. This is just like that, just…y'know. No harness, so try not to fall off."

Tank heaved his gun back up and latched it onto his back, again marvelling Jack at his sheer strength. Hunter straightened his hat and Jose started leading the way up the wall. As he did, a flash of previous thoughts ran through Jack's mind and he found himself speaking without thinking.

"Hold on!" he called.

"What?" Jose asked. "What's wrong?"

Jack took a few seconds to collect his thoughts and try to form a proper request that wouldn't make him sound desperate (even though he was). He knew Hunter would think he was stupid for requesting such a thing, but that didn't matter. Jack had no intention of leaving his sister for dead (or worse) and would do anything to save her, but he and even June and Aaron weren't enough. With these three? Saving her wouldn't be a cinch, but it would definitely downgrade the degree of difficulty from "impossible" to at least "improbable".

"Listen, guys." he started, biting the inside of his mouth as the words escaped his mouth. "Can I ask you a favour?"

"You're not in the mood for getting growled at, we're not in the mood for any favours." said Hunter. "Forget it, short stop."

"For fuck's sake, you dirty rotten meat-headed shitsack…"

Jose scoffed, prompting a glare from Hunter.

"No, old-timer, YOU'RE not in the mood. Me? I actually like being the good guy. How 'bout you, Tank?"

Tank again said nothing, but did grow a small half-smile and give another thumbs-up. Jose grew a similar smile and nodded while Hunter threw up his arms in defeat and murmured something about everyone but him being a bunch of little bitches.

"So to answer your question, hermano, sure thing. But we gotta get outta this dump and regroup with Aaron first."

"Thank you so much…but can I ask you something else? What does that mean?"

"Oh, 'hermano'? It means 'brother'. Let's get a move-on, boys!"

And thus, Jose led the way as the four climbed up and around the cavern, making their way closer to the top with each second they held on. Jose's constant calling him "hermano" suddenly meant more to Jack now that he knew its meaning. It instilled a stronger sense of comradery, and as he looked as the three again, he felt it burn within him and he felt a smile grow on his face.

"So this is what Dad and Grandpa felt like…" he thought.

They kept on climbing. In Jack's mind, he was climbing his way to strength. To bravery, even.

Thanks to these three soldiers, he felt more like a man now than ever.

* * *

><p>Even a good number of large animals fled when the two Arwings broke through the trees and landed on the first flat surface their pilots could find. As soon as they touched down, Fox and Krystal leapt out and drew their weapons that they hadn't used in the longest time. Like Fox had said to Marcus, however, knowing how to use them hadn't been lost on him or Krystal despite them getting up there in years.<p>

Fox visually scoped out the area while Krystal closed her eyes and sent out concentrated telepathic pulses. She located a presence a small distance from their current location. She doubted it was either of her grandchildren judging from the height and shape of the person she had picked up, but it was the only lead they had at the moment.

"Fox." she called. "This way."

Fox didn't bother to ask if she was sure. He didn't need to. Over forty years of marriage resulted in more trust in her than anyone could ever need. He nodded and tightened his grip on his beat-up laser blaster and jogged as Krystal led the way through the woods with her own gun in hand. She had a thought to take her old staff with her, but it was far more trustworthy in Marcus's hands. Even if the gun failed her, it was more likely than not that whatever monsters were here wouldn't see telekinesis coming.

By now, night had fallen and the stars started to light up the sky. Fox could see just enough through the trees to make out the sinister haze of Venom. Krystal followed his gaze and grimaced, but nonetheless looked over her shoulder at him with a smile.

"You ever miss those days?" she asked.

"Hm?"

"Star Fox. Do you miss that?"

Fox smiled and ran his free hand through the fur on his head. Of course he did. Every day. All the thrills and the senses of justice and comradery flowed back to him whenever he least expected it and made him smile.

But he knew better than to say it was what he wanted.

"Sure, and it might feel funny in a good way to have a gun in my hand again," he said. "But you and Mark and everybody else make the average stay-at-home life more meaningful than any of that…and not having to worry about getting shot down in flames is a plus."

They shared a laugh and came in close for a kiss when they heard rustling nearby. They stood apart and held their guns at the ready, looking around for any sign of movement and listening for the sound again. It didn't come, but that didn't make a difference. They knew something was hunting them.

"I'll go scout around." Fox said. "Stay here. If anything happens, call me."

"Right. I'll keep sensing and let you know if something comes up."

Fox took off jogging while Krystal stayed rooted to the spot, the gun ready to fire and her mind waves pinpointing the location of each animal for miles. She listened, showing no signs of fear. She'd encountered such moments of tension during her younger years on her homeworld. Just one of Cerinia's wild beasts, especially a grimtiger, was likely more than anything living on this planet could handle.

At least, that was what Krystal thought until she heard the rustling again. She didn't show fear until she began to process it in her head. The sound had been further away the first time she had heard it, keeping its distance when it was both her and Fox. Now that she was alone, it was much closer.

It hit her right when Lolita Ferdinand stepped out of the undergrowth that she and Fox had fallen for the obvious ruse. Hook, line, and sinker, and they (the worms) were too deep underwater to get out now.

"Krystal McCloud, I presume." Lolita said with a doll-like smile fixed on her face

"Who the bloody hell are you?!" Krystal demanded, tensing her grip on her gun.

"I have to say I was expecting your son first, but that's alright.

They were about the same height with Krystal being far better built, making her wonder why she was scared of what appeared to be a mere teenage girl. She felt sweat start to drip down her forehead as she took steady steps backward, Lolita taking steps just as small to keep the distance between them roughly the same. Just when Krystal finally had the good sense to pop off a shot at Lolita's head, the nightmarish girl shifted around the blast and zipped forward. Her face and Krystal's were now inches apart, and as the latter kept staring, the former ran her tongue across her sharp teeth and bared them.

"It was only a matter of time before I got around to you."

"FOX!"

He may have been getting old, but Fox's ears were still in tip-top shape and could hear his wife's screams from a galaxy away. He spun around on the spot he stood and started sprinting back as quickly as he could. His lungs were ready to burst within moments and his legs began to burn with similar wear, but he didn't stop running until he leapt over the last fallen log.

"KRYSTAL!" he shouted as he skidded to a halt.

He saw Krystal ducked down, the gun still in her hand with no other living thing in sight. Fox breathed a sigh of relief and doubled over as the wear on his lungs got to him.

"Oh, Goddamn, I'm not cut out for running anymore…" he wheezed before he caught his breath and stood up straight. "You okay?"

Krystal stood, and only now did Fox notice the pinprick wounds on her neck. He was about to question her about them when she turned, her eyes closed at first. Fox could already feel an air of tension that he hadn't felt in ages long gone, and the moment he took one step toward her, he knew he'd set off a landmine. Krystal opened her eyes, revealing them to have gone completely red, and as she laid her gaze on her husband, she smiled. A toothy smile that let him get a good look at her steadily lengthening canine teeth.

"I'd say she's more than okay, Fox McCloud." Lolita said as she emerged from behind the closest tree, slinking toward him with the same seductive nature one would expect from a lover. "Just a little nip and she's better than she's ever been. I'll be more than happy to give you the same gift."

Fox gritted his teeth as both Krystal and Lolita waltzed toward, stretching their arms out and giggling to themselves. Krystal eyed her beloved with an evil and yet oddly soothing gaze as she steadily closed the distance between them, and as Fox realized the whole thing was a setup, he could do nothing more than just wait for it to be over, Krystal's whispers filling his ears the entire time.

"I think I'll take that kiss now, love."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Ah, feels good to get this thing going again. Sorry to everyone who's been waiting for the next chapter (if anyone).<strong>_

_**So dat Star Fox Zero, eh? Looks bloody awesome in my opinion. Yes, it's not taking the story further since it's a reimagining of Star Fox 64, but it shows so much promise that I can easily ignore that (kinda helps that Star Fox 64 is my favorite game in the series). **_

_**And it's being developed by Platinum?! The guys behind MadWorld, Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, and the Wonderful 101 are making a Star Fox game?! Dude, I am in!**_

_**Oh, and special thanks once again to Razorblade88 for the characters of Jose, Hunter, and Tank. You've got some pretty wicked ideas swimming around in your noggin, man.**_

**SOUNDTRACK SO FAR**

_Meet Jack McCloud_- "Solitary Shell" by Dream Theater

_When bloodsuckers attack-_ "Before I Forget" by Slipknot

_Through the woods-_ "Damned" from Call of Duty: Black Ops

_A few moments of bonding-_ "Under the Milky Way" by the Church

_Attack in the village_- "Murmaider" by Dethklok

_June's secret revealed_- "Away From the Sun" by 3 Doors Down

_Memories of Kursed-_ "Parabola"by Tool

_Creatures of the Black Web- _"Bodies" by Drowning Pool


End file.
